K. N.

Daruwalla
Daruwalla’s Biography:
Keki Nasserwanji Daruwalla was born in Lahore
in January 24, 1937. His father, N.C. Daruwalla
was professor in Government College Lahore.
Before the partition of India, his family left
undivided India in 1945 and moved to Junagarh a

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deshi riyasat. He then came back to India in

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Rampur. So, he learned many languages as he
grew up studying in different schools of the

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country and in various languages.
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After taking his master’s degree in English
Lit­erature from Punjab University he joined the
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Indian Police Service. Later, he became Special

Assistant to the Prime Minister on the
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International affairs. Subsequently, he was in the

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cabinet secretariat until his retirement. While he

was serving in the Indian Police service, he
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learnt the writing craft. Moreover, his work as a

police officer provided him various opportunities
to encounter the harsh realities of the world,
which became the substance of his poetry.
His writing is set in rural Indian landscape which
has inspired him. According to the poet’s own
 K. N. Daruwalla
admission his poems are rooted in the rural
landscape and his poetry is earthy which
means that he has avoided that sophistication
which “while add­ing gloss, takes away from
the power of verse”. Writings of Keki N
Daruwalla is marked by his bitter and satiric tone

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loaded with his own experience of violence, in

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particular the brutal nature of Police
encounters.

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While his early poems, especially those
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written from his experience as a police officer,
show an acuteness of observation and
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sharpness of expression, the later poems

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show an intensification of social awareness, of

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a deep consciousness of the environment in

which a poem is set. But the real significance
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and power of his poetry “emerge from the

interaction between his subjective responses
and the larger context that includes both myth
and actuality.” Daruwalla’s poetry is notable for
the vivid and picturesque portrayal of the
landscape of North India. Its rivers, hills, plains
 K. N. Daruwalla
and pastures are beautifully depicted. Keki’s
conception of love is neither philosophical nor
spiritual. To him, sex is essential for happy
married life.
His first book of poems Under Orion was
published in 1970 and his Apparition in April

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published in 1971 won the Uttar Pradesh State

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Award in 1972.

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His third book Crossing of Rivers was published
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by the Oxford University Press in 1976. His
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po­ems figure in a number of anthologies and he

has himself edited an anthology of modern
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Indian poetry under the title Two Decades of

Indian Poetry in English — 1960 – 1980. He won
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the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1984.

Nissim Ezekiel applauded his work as

“impressive evidence not only of mature
poetic talent but
 K. N. Daruwalla
of literary stamina, intellectual strength and
social awareness”.

Refugee film by J. P. Dutta is believed to be

inspired by “Love Across the Salt Desert” a

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story by Keki Daruwalla. The thematic canvas of

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the story is based around the Great Rann of
Kutch. Also, the story makes part of the Std. XII

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syllabus English textbook, NCERT.
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His Awards:
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Uttar Pradesh State Award in 1972-

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Apparition in April
Sahitya Academy Award in 1984- The Keeper
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of the Dead
The Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Asia
in 1987-sixth volume of the collections of
poems, entitled Landscapes
Padma Shri in 2014
 K. N. Daruwalla
Daruwalla’s important Works:

Poetry:

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● Under Orion’ (1970),

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● Apparition in April’ (1971),
● Crossing of Rivers’ (1976),

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● Winter Poems, 1980
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● The Keeper of the Dead” (1982)
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● Landscape, 1987
● A summer of tigers, 1995
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● Night river, 2000

● The Map-maker, 2002
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● The Scarecrow and the Ghost, 2004

● Collected Poems (1970–2005), 2006
 K. N. Daruwalla
Daruwalla’s important Book of
Verse:

The Keeper of the Dead (1982): For this work

Daruwalla got Central Sahitya Akademi Award in

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1984.

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Daruwalla’s important Short Stories:
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● Sword & abyss (1979)

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● The Minister for Permanent unrest & other

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stories (1996)
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● A House in Ranikhet (2003)

Daruwalla’s important Novels:

● For Pepper and Christ- A Novel, (2010): It is a

historical novel based on Vasco da Gama’s
 K. N. Daruwalla
voyage to India for the spice trade. The plot
builds on a historical canvas, woven around
events during the end of the 15th century and
the 16th century.
● Swerving to Solitude: Letters to Mama (2018):

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This story builds on dissenting voice of

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Seema (married to someone in PMO) during
the Emergency, which leads to marital discord

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in her own life and unexpectedly beginning of
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her mother’s private history – mama’s feelings
for MN Roy.
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Daruwalla’s Works Detail :

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Routine
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This poem is taken from the collection Apparition in

April(1971). The speaker of the poem is a police officer
in uniform who is ordered to put down a riot. The poem
begins by describing the 'putties'- a strip of clothe
police man wears on their calves above their boots- of
the police and the poet alludes this to the British raj.
 K. N. Daruwalla
The speaker continues to describe the incompatibility
of wearing colonial uniform in the hotter climate of
India. This alien uniform keeps the police man
repulsive, hot-tempered and detached from the people
of their own country.
Following the instructions, the police men march
towards the angry crowd of young protestors - mostly

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students- and the latter call them abusive names. The

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police men do not bother as they are used to it. Karam
Singh- a police officer with the same rank as that of the

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speaker- comments that these protesters are very
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young and he has children older to them.
The violent protesters set fire to tramcars and turns
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their attention to the police men. The speaker fears that

the rioters will burn their khaki skins. As expected, the
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police repeats their routine of warning the protesters

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which is lost in fiery slogans an

The poem concludes with an ironic statement uttered
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by a political leader who may have professed and

exploited the inexperienced student protesters. It is true
that political leaders often do nothing for the
progression of the country and that keep the country
backward. It also true that police men are working
under difficult circumstances and they are often
deployed to manage violent mobs
 K. N. Daruwalla

Migration
About the Poem:

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Keki Daruwala, as a government servant (IPS)

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through his nostalgia talks about the difficulties
and realities that the migration brings in the life
of an individual as well as in the history of a

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nation. Daruwala gathers all the events in his
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mind while talking about the metaphysical
concept, migration. According to him, the
migrants have to tolerate many things such as
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new circumstance, new culture, etc. He also

uses the mother as well as grandmother image
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to describe the role of time played in his psyche.

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Themes in the poem:

•Pain and loss due to migration
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•Causes, process and effects of Migration – a

large part of any country’s history
•Nostalgia for places and past
•Alienation with reference to place and time
•Physical and emotional distance with respect to
time and place
•Alienation in relationships
 K. N. Daruwalla
‘Hawk’
Daruwalla’s poem ‘Hawk’ has an interesting
interplay of perspective. Her poem begins in
the first person where the poet recounts
seeing a hawk. The first stanza has an almost
primitive aggression where the predatory
aspects of the hawk are capitulated. The

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recurrent image is that of a bird filled with

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hatred that swoops down on its prey without
mercy. This is the nature of a hawk but if this
image is disturbing then the domesticated
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hawk that falls under man’s shadow is a
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monster created by man solely for his own
purposes.
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“The tamed one is worse, for he is touched by

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man.
Hawking is turned to a ritual, the predator’s
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passion honed to an art;”

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Man is shown to be crueler than the hawk for

by nature a hawk is a predator that must kill to
eat but man makes the hawk kill for his own
pleasure and diversion which is a pervasion of
what the hawk must do. And this is not the
end of it; a captured hawk is at first blinded.
Its eyes are sewn up and bit by bit the stitches
are removed. The pain and such perverted
 K. N. Daruwalla
treatment are enough to make a devil of a
saint so it is not surprising that the hawk when
allowed to hunt take out all its hate on its prey
and shows no mercy for it get none. Thus, the
domesticated hawk is even more formidable
than one from the wild.
The third stanza is a haunting depiction of a
hunt where a mother hawk teaches her son to

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hunt. They chase after a hare and since they

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cannot kill it at once they swoop down
repeatedly tearing at its flesh. In the fourth

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stanza we have the domesticated hawk
speaking out. it is again a first person
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perspective but it is the hawk speaking and
what is more terrible is that many humans too
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have the same agenda the hawk charts out.

Does this mean civilized or domesticated man
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is the worst of all predators?

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“They can’t kill him in one fell swoop.

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But each time the talons cart away

a patch of ripped fur.
He diminishes one talon-morsel at a time.”
 K. N. Daruwalla
The Epileptic”.

The poem involves a family outing. A family of four

goes out on a rickshaw—two children, a husband and
a wife with a child in his womb. On the way the woman

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is suddenly affected by fits. Her body shivers. She

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loses her consciousness. The children move away
rapidly from her. People rush for help.
The poem involves a minor incident but it conveys

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more on the psyche of the husband. Moreover, it also
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brings out the violence in its crude form. In this poem
the violence works at various levels. The violence is
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psychological, sociological, physical, individual and

lexic
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The wife undergoes more physical trauma and also

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she faces embarrassment in the public. Her privacy is

also invaded in the public. The violence affects the
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psyche of the family. Finally after regaining her

awareness the wife’s trauma is more evident as her
features undergo a sudden change expressing a
sense of extraordinary disappointment. Her reaction is
presented through the reaction of the husband.