Nissim Ezekiel Age, Death, Wife, Family, Biography & More
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Death Date: 09/01/2004
Death Cause: Alzheimers
Age: 79 Years
Bio/Wiki | |
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Profession(s) | • Poet • Actor • Playwright • Editor • Art critic |
Known as | Father of post-independence Indian poetry in English |
Career | |
First Published work | A Time to Change and Other Poems (1952) |
Last Published work | Selected prose (1992) |
Awards | • In 1988, he was honoured with the Padma Shri award by the President of India. • In 1983, he won the Sahitya Akademi cultural award. |
Personal Life | |
Date of Birth | 16 December 1924 (Tuesday) |
Birthplace | Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India |
Date of Death | 9 January 2004 |
Place of Death | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
Age (at the time of death) | 79 Years |
Death Cause | Alzheimer’s disease [1]Australian Broadcasting Corporation |
Zodiac sign | Sagittarius |
Signature | |
Nationality | • Indian (1947-2004) • British Indian (1924-1947) |
Hometown | Mumbai |
School | • Convent of Jesus and Mary, Mumbai • Antonio De Souza High School, Mumbai |
College/University | • Wilson College, Bombay University (1947) • Birkbeck College, London (1948-1949) |
Educational Qualification(s) | • Bachelor of Arts in Literature from Wilson College, Bombay University • Philosophy from Birkbeck College, London |
Religion | Judaism [2]MEI |
Food Habit | Turned vegetarian at the age of 45 [3]MEI |
Relationships & More | |
Marital Status | Divorced |
Marriage Date | Year, 1952 |
Family | |
Wife/Spouse | Daizy Jacob Dandekarand |
Children | Son- 1 • Elkana Daughter- 2 • Kalpana • Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca (writer & poet) |
Parents | Father- Moses Ezekiel (a professor at Wilson College) Mother- Diana Ezekiel (Principal at her own school) |
Siblings | Brother(s)- 2 (names not known) Sister(s)- 2 • Asha Bhende (Born Lily Ezekiel Talkar) |
Other relatives | Nephew: Nandu Bhende (Lily's son) (actor) |
Some Lesser Known Facts About Nissim Ezekiel
- Nissim Ezekiel is known as the founder of English-language post-independence Indian poetry.
- His works are taught in the NCERT high school curriculum.
- He also worked as a broadcaster and social analyst.
- Nissim Ezekiel belonged to the Marathi-speaking Jewish community, known as the Bene Israel, in Mumbai.
- Following graduation, he worked as a freelance journalist for several publications, for M. N. Roy’s Radical Democratic Party, and as a teacher at Khalsa College in Mumbai for a year.
- While studying philosophy at Birkbeck College in London, Nissim took evening classes at the City Literary Institute in Chinese, Western Philosophy, and Art Appreciation. After spending three and a half years there, he returned home by working as a deck scrubber on a ship transporting weapons to China and India
- In the late 1940s, Nissim began his writing career. “A Time to Change,” his debut book, was released in 1952. He released The Deadly Man, a collection of poems, in 1960.
- He served as general manager and advertising copywriter at a picture frame manufacturer from 1954 to 1959.
- He was a co-founder of the literary journal Jumpo in 1961. Ezekiel’s three plays Nalini, Marriage Poem, and The Sleep-walkers were published in 1969 at the Writers Workshop.
- In 1961, he became the head of the English Department at Mithibai College, Bombay.
- He was also a visiting professor at the University of Leeds in 1964 and the University of Pondicherry in 1967. He remained the Head of the English department until 1972.
- He joined The Times of India as an art critic, where he worked for two years, 1964–1966.
- In 1966, he started working as an editor for Poetry India. He attended the University of Leeds in 1964 and the University of Pondicherry in 1967 as a visiting professor.
- In 1976, along with Vrinda Nabar, he translated Jawaharlal Nehru‘s poetry from English to Marathi and co-edited an anthology of poetry and fiction. His writing primarily dealt with grief and despair. English textbooks for the ICSE and NCERT both utilize his poems.
- Nissim Ezekiel passed away in Mumbai on 9 January 2004, at the age of 79, following a prolonged fight with Alzheimer’s in a nursing facility in Bandra. He was buried at the Jewish Cemetery, Worli, Mumbai. His death year, 2014, was regarded as the annus horribilis, a year of disaster or misfortune, for English-language Indian poetry.
- In 2000, R. Rao, an Indian writer and poet, wrote an authorised biography on Nissim Ezekiel titled Nissim Ezekiel: The Authorized Biography. [4]The Indian Express
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