One hundred years of Nissim Ezekiel: What the poet’s life and work tell us about him

In the midst of various household tasks, a few pieces of paper would always fall in front of me, from the pile of books in my reading room. Like pages from the memory storage, I pick these souvenirs, dust them off and put them back again thinking that I can look at them in detail another day. Today, I can see the frail figure of a poet with a gentle demeanour through the pieces of paper that are tearing off. A letter of introduction that poet Nissim Ezekiel wrote for me, some thirty years ago. The poet who moved gently in the fast pace of the big city of Mumbai; The poet whom I met during my travels through the Jewish landscapes in Maharashtra as part of my research at Jawaharlal Nehru University. My main purpose then was to learn about the Jewish community and their cultural life. But Ezekiel spoke to me as a poet, as a representative of the city of Mumbai, as an Indian.

“I am an Indian first and foremost. I do not want to immigrate to Israel just because I was born in the Jewish community. I would not opt for it. But I look at...

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