Our Self-Written Obituaries – Vasantha Angamuthu, Durban

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Vasantha Angamuthu, Durban

March 30, 2015 · by · in Farewell Notice

The 47th death.

[By Vasantha Angamuthu]

Writer, cookbook hoarder and mother of the talented Nina Singh, Vasantha Angamuthu (6 April 1968 – 6 April 2068) died in her sleep last night, much earlier than she would have liked but much later than she had expected given her well publicized love for cigarettes, Bordeaux-style red wine and handmade gin.

Ms Angamuthu worked as a journalist and editor in South Africa, India and, briefly, in New York, a city she loved because there were more restaurants than “one could conceivably eat at even if you ate every meal out for your entire life”. She wrote a blog documenting her valiant attempts to do just that.

She was known for extolling the virtues of just lying around, comfort cooking, binge reading and combing through car boot markets badgering sellers into discounting bone handle cutlery and vintage baking sheets.

Ms Angamuthu is the author of 17 incomplete books, all of which she talked about ad nausem in later life, and two published cookbooks, How to cook and eat like a normal person and Africa cooks best.

She leaves behind a house filled with tat, cookbooks, African art, thrift shop LPs and glass-fronted bookshelves she was assured came from the Supreme Court in Delhi.

In her last interview she said the best things about getting old was “being able to get away with being a grammar Nazi and being able to wear comfortable underwear instead of control garments that ‘held everything in’”.

Her daughter Nina is the founder and CEO of African Women Rule the World. She said her mother “liked living, was good at it and despaired that there were not enough kind people in the world”.

Our Self-Written Obituaries invites people to write their obituary in 200 words. The idea is to share with the world how you will like to be remembered after you are gone. (May you live a long life, of course!) Please mail me your self-obit at mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com.

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