Plutarch's Mine of Poetry

Poet, writer and former IPS officer Keki N. Daruwalla has left behind a towering literary legacy

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WE will all miss that heart-melting smile of his and the warmth of his handclasp. Not an Angrezi handshake, but the soft love you feel when an elder brother caresses your palm like solace. Few poets of high stature and fame could compare with Keki N. Daruwalla when he was sharing his bonhomie with his huge group of admirers across the country. But remember, he was never an inch of a celebrity in his manners and demeanour.

Keki passed away at his residence in New Delhi late in the evening on September 26, 2024 at the age of 87. He had been unwell for some time. It is difficult to track down such a long and chequered career, but suffice to say that he was like an iconic Parsi gentleman and Elizabethan buccaneer rolled into one.

I would rather start with my personal experiences with Keki. His poems used to appear in the popular Illustrated Weekly of India along with other stalwart poets, mainly of the Bombay group, when I was in college. The name ‘Daruwalla’ struck me, but never for the wrong reasons. Bejan Daruwalla was also contributing his much-vaunted weekly astrological forecasts in the same magazine. Keki would have frankly spoken on his views on horoscopes, but I never had the guts to ask him if Bejan was his elder brother! One thing leads to another—I found out that he was a top cop, an IPS officer, who rose to the rank of Special Assistant on International Affairs to the then Prime Minister Charan Singh.