Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca
Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca was born and raised in a Bene Israel Jewish family in Bombay. She is the author of three books; ‘Family Sunday and other Poems’ ‘Light of The Sabbath’ and Nissim Ezekiel Poet & Father.’ Her poem ‘Advice From a Poet Father', is nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2024. Her poem “How to Light Up a Poem” was also nominated for a Pushcart prize in 2020. Her poems celebrate her Jewish ancestry and heritage, Bombay, the beloved city of her birth, and Nature, among others. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and French from St Xavier’s college Bombay, and a Master’s Degree in English and American Literature from the University of Bombay, and a Master’s Degree in Education from Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England. She has taught English in colleges in India, and French and Spanish, in private schools overseas, for over four decades. Her poems have been published in several anthologies, including the Journal of Indian Literature published by the Sahitya Akademi, the four Yearbooks of Indian Poetry in English, and the Jewish Writing Project. She also writes Nonfiction, book reviews and has co-edited a Food anthology. A Centennial Celebration volume "Nissim Ezekiel Poet & Father, compiled by her, edited by Vinita Agrawal and published by Pippa Rann Books has just been released in October 2024. Kavita is the eldest daughter of Professor Nissim Ezekiel.
Ancestral Shipwreck
(A poem about the legend of the origins of the Bene- Israel community of Indian Jews, to which I belong.)
Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca
I arrived on stormy seas
Flung against a rock by a shipwreck
I don’t remember who I was fleeing
Or why I boarded the ship.
The village gave me shelter
I remembered *The Shema and The Sabbath
I forgot my language
I adopted a new one
I don’t remember what I was wearing
(It was wave-drenched anyway)
I began wearing a saree
The men remembered their profession
They remained oil pressers
They didn’t work on Saturdays
The villagers called them ** Shanwartelis
We ate like the locals.
I thank the rock
For standing firm
Like the wise man
In the hymn we sang at school
The rock granted me life
It let me build my house.
I seemed more dead than alive
I stirred on the funeral pyre
The villagers built for my lifeless body
So they resuscitated me.
I thank the whale
For swallowing me whole,
Like Jonah
It spit me out on dry land
And my tribe increased.
We survived the shipwreck
Seven couples
We fulfilled the promise
God made to Abraham
We multiplied like the grains of sand
On the shore
Grandfather moved his family to the big city
Father fell in love with it
He wrote poems about it
I did too.
* The Shema - Jewish prayer: Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.
** Shanwartelis- Saturday Oil pressers (Shanwar means Saturday in Marathi)
(A poem about the legend of the origins of the Bene- Israel community of Indian Jews, to which I belong.)
Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca
I arrived on stormy seas
Flung against a rock by a shipwreck
I don’t remember who I was fleeing
Or why I boarded the ship.
The village gave me shelter
I remembered *The Shema and The Sabbath
I forgot my language
I adopted a new one
I don’t remember what I was wearing
(It was wave-drenched anyway)
I began wearing a saree
The men remembered their profession
They remained oil pressers
They didn’t work on Saturdays
The villagers called them ** Shanwartelis
We ate like the locals.
I thank the rock
For standing firm
Like the wise man
In the hymn we sang at school
The rock granted me life
It let me build my house.
I seemed more dead than alive
I stirred on the funeral pyre
The villagers built for my lifeless body
So they resuscitated me.
I thank the whale
For swallowing me whole,
Like Jonah
It spit me out on dry land
And my tribe increased.
We survived the shipwreck
Seven couples
We fulfilled the promise
God made to Abraham
We multiplied like the grains of sand
On the shore
Grandfather moved his family to the big city
Father fell in love with it
He wrote poems about it
I did too.
* The Shema - Jewish prayer: Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.
** Shanwartelis- Saturday Oil pressers (Shanwar means Saturday in Marathi)
Poems
https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/.../three...
https://parchamonline.in/.../august-2024-issue.../4/...
https://www.verse-virtual.org/2024/August/mendonca-kavita-ezekiel-2024-august.html
https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/.../three...
https://parchamonline.in/.../august-2024-issue.../4/...
https://www.verse-virtual.org/2024/August/mendonca-kavita-ezekiel-2024-august.html
Reviews
https://www.differenttruths.com/a-daughters-love-letter-to-her-father-nissim-ezekiel/
https://www.differenttruths.com/.../manifestations-of.../...
https://cafedissensuseveryday.com/.../book-review-kavita.../
https://www.differenttruths.com/a-daughters-love-letter-to-her-father-nissim-ezekiel/
https://www.differenttruths.com/.../manifestations-of.../...
https://cafedissensuseveryday.com/.../book-review-kavita.../
Interviews
https://platoscavesonline.wordpress.com/2022/06/25/an-interview-with-kavita-ezekiel-mendonca-by-susmita-paul/
https://www.iglobalnews.com/icommunity/columns/celebrating-the-life-and-vibrancy-of-india-in-its-crowdshttps://journals.flinders.edu.au/index.php/wic/article/view/76 (Interview with Jaydeep Sarangi and Basudhara Roy
https://platoscavesonline.wordpress.com/2022/06/25/an-interview-with-kavita-ezekiel-mendonca-by-susmita-paul/
https://www.iglobalnews.com/icommunity/columns/celebrating-the-life-and-vibrancy-of-india-in-its-crowdshttps://journals.flinders.edu.au/index.php/wic/article/view/76 (Interview with Jaydeep Sarangi and Basudhara Roy
Other Links
Family Sunday and other Poems
Light of The Sabbath
Nissim Ezekiel Poet & Father
Family Sunday and other Poems
Light of The Sabbath
Nissim Ezekiel Poet & Father