Nissim Ezekiel, Leading English Language Indian Poet

Nissim Ezekiel (December 24, 1924 - January 9, 2004) was a poet, playwright and art critic. He was considered one of the foremost Indian writers in English of his time. Image File history File links Nissim_Ezekiel_Sr. ... Image File history File links Nissim_Ezekiel_Sr. ... December 24 is the 358th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (359th in leap years). ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... January 9 is the 9th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Early life

Ezekiel was born in Bombay (now Mumbai). Ezekiel's father was a botany professor and his mother, principal of her own school. He belonged to Mumbai's Jewish community known as 'Bene Israel' . In 1947, Ezekiel did his Masters in Literature from Wilson College, University of Mumbai. In 1947-48, he taught English literature at Khalsa College, Mumbai and published literary articles. After dabbling in radical politics for a while, he sailed to London in November 1948. He studied philosophy at Birkbeck College. After a three and half years stay, Ezekiel worked his way home as a deck-scrubber aboard a cargo ship carrying arms to Indochina. Mumbai (Hindi/Marathi: मुंबई) (pronounced ), formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the state of Maharashtra, and the most populous city of India, with an estimated population of about 13 million (as of 2006)[1]. Mumbai is located on Salsette Island, off the west coast of Maharashtra. ... The Bene Israel (Sons of Israel) are a group of Jews who, in the mid-twentieth century, lived primarily in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Ahmadabad and Karachi. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Mumbai (Hindi/Marathi: मुंबई) (pronounced ), formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the state of Maharashtra, and the most populous city of India, with an estimated population of about 13 million (as of 2006)[1]. Mumbai is located on Salsette Island, off the west coast of Maharashtra. ... This article is about the British city. ... Birkbeck Birkbeck (sometimes still called Birkbeck College) is a College of the University of London. ...

He married Daisy Jacob in 1952. In the same year, Fortune press (London) published his first collection of poetry, A Time to Change. He joined The Illustrated Weekly of India as an assistant editor in 1953 and stayed there for two years. Soon after his return from London, he published his second book of verse Sixty Poems. For the next 10 years, he also worked as a broadcaster on arts and literature for All India Radio. // Overview All India Radio (AIR for short) is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India), an autonomous corporation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. ...

Career

He published his book The Unfinished Man in 1960. After working as an advertising copywriter and general manager of a picture frame company (1954-59), he co-founded the literary monthly Imprint, in 1961. He became art critic of The Times of India (1964-66) and edited Poetry India (1966-67). From 1961 to 1972, he headed the English department of Mithibai College, Mumbai. The Exact Name, his fifth book of poetry was puublished in 1965. During this period he had short tenures as visiting professor at University of Leeds (1964) and University of Chicago (1967). In 1967 while in America, he experimented with hallucenogenic drugs, probably as a means to expand his writing skills. He finally stopped using them in 1972. In 1969, Writers Workshop, Calcutta published his The Three Plays. A year later, he presented an art series of ten programs for Mumbai television. The Common Man featured on a commemorative stamp released by the Indian Postal Service on the 150th Anniversary of the Times of India - 1988. ... Parkinson Building, University of Leeds The University of Leeds, England, is one of the largest universities in the United Kingdom and the most popular by applicants, with 52,444 applicants in 2003 for 7,228 places (UCAS). ... The University of Chicago is a private university principally located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1890 and opened in 1892. ...

On the invitation of the US government, he went on a month long tour to the US in November, 1974. In 1976, he translated poetry from Marathi, and co-edited a fiction and poetry anthology. His poem The Night Of The Scorpion is used as study material in Indian and British schools. Marathi is one of the widely spoken languages of India, and has a long literary history. ...

Ezekiel received the Sahitya Akademi cultural award in 1983 and the Padma Shri in 1988. He was professor of English and reader in American literature at University of Mumbai during the 1990s, and secretary of the Indian branch of the international writers' organization PEN. The Sahitya Akademi is an Indian organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

After a prolonged battle with Alzheimer's disease, Nissim Ezekiel died in Mumbai, January 9 2004 at age 79.

When he began his writing career in the late 1940s, his use of formal and correct English was criticized, given its association with colonialism. After 1965, he began experimenting with exaggerated 'Indian English'. Ezekiel, being a member of the Indian Jewish community, approached poetry as an outsider and was different from the nationalistic Indian literature of that time. Most of his poetry was that of the urban India, issues of alienation, love, marriage and sexuality. He acted as a mentor to younger poets, such as Dom Moraes, Adil Jussawalla and Gieve Patel. In the last few years of his life, he was deeply involved in helping Mumbai poets, his advice being forthright, but seldom blunt. Indian English refers to the dialects or varieties of English spoken primarily in the Republic of India (estimates of the total number of speakers of English in India vary from around 10 to 20 percent of the population), and also by Indian diaspora elsewhere in the world. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Dominic Francis Moraes (July 19, 1938 - June 2, 2004), popularly known as Dom Moraes was an Indian writer, poet and columnist. ...

Books by Nissim Ezekiel

• Time To Change - 1952
• Sixty Poems - 1953
• The Third - 1959
• The Unfinished Man - 1960
• The Exact Name - 1965
• The Three Plays - 1969
• Hymns in Darkness - 1976

Some of his well-known poems

• Night of the Scorpion
• The Professor
• Case Study
• Enterprise
• Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher
• Background, Casually
• Poster Prayers

External links

• Detailed Bio from "The Guardian" March 9, 2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,1165150,00.html
• The Bene Israel Community - Joseph Jacobs and Joseph Ezekiel, Beni-Israel, in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906)