Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca, poet and daughter of celebrated icon Nissim Ezekiel, gives mid-day readers an exclusive sneak peek into her current project, the sequel to her famous poem, Alibaug
Noted writer, chronicler and artist Jael Silliman had painted scenes from Ezekiel Mendonca’s poem, Alibaug. Pics Courtesy/Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca
What are you currently working on?
For a few months now, I have been mulling over the lines to a sequel for my poem ‘Alibaug’ first written in 2019 and published in my chapbook Light of The Sabbath in 2021. The lines for my poem, Alibaug Village Well kept coming to me in bits and pieces in Marathi. For me, when this happens, I find it most rewarding as all my poems are normally in English. I wrote a few lines and a few more are finding their way onto the page.
Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca’s recent jottings in Marathi from her notebook
Could you tell us about the Marathi connection?
Marathi is the language of the Bene Israel Indian Jews along with English. My gratitude to my mother for keeping Marathi alive in my childhood home, and to my husband for learning it so we can now speak it at home together. He is from Mangalore, and his native language is Konkani.
What memories do you have of Alibaug, and how did it link with your latest poem?
Alibaug has a special place in my life as I spent many happy days of my childhood there. My uncle had a grain mill and along with my aunt and my cousins it was one of the many homes I lived in. Alibaug was also the village close to where the first Jewish people settled when, according to legend, they landed via a shipwreck on the Konkan coast of India.
A dated photograph of Nissim Ezekiel and Kavita taken in Mussoorie when he visited her home on the school campus
The village well in Alibaug is the centre of activity as it is in most Indian villages. My poem describes how my cousin and I walked to the well with the bucket swinging between us. The swinging bucket reminded me of the village women with their hips swaying as they balanced pots of water on their heads. The well was just a few steps from their home. Almost 25 years later, I visited Goa with my husband and my son who was a toddler then. We rented a room in a small home with a well outside the house. My husband bathed the little boy with the water from the well as he stood there in his little shorts, shivering, as the water was very cold. So, wells too played a significant role in my memory.
The Biblical story of the woman, who was drawing water from the well and met Jesus there, also came to my mind. I might refer to that in my poem too. It is a poem in progress. It will go through several revisions.
Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca
You write effortlessly across languages. Could you tell us about the experiences?
A while ago, I had written a poem in Marathi about my maternal grandfather, how he sat by the window in his white kurta pajama, singing a song about the breeze that flowed into the house in their very old building in Bombay. I also wrote a poem in Hindi, my love of the language nurtured by a maternal aunt who was an excellent Hindi teacher. I have a special notebook for writing poems in the Indian languages I am able to read, write and speak. I love writing the poems in the original Devanagari script in my own handwriting. Watching films in Marathi, and of course, in Hindi, helps me be in touch with these languages. My favourites are Marathi songs, especially songs based on poems by the renowned Marathi poet Shanta Shelke, with whom I was privileged to work with in my first job at the Maharshi Dayanand College in Mumbai.
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