Celebrated English poet and former IPS officer, Keki N. Daruwalla, passed away in a Delhi hospital after battling a prolonged illness having suffered a stroke last year, and succumbed to a bout of pneumonia, on 26^th September, 2024, at the age of 87. A distinguished member of the Delhi Parsi Anjuman, Keki Daruwalla was one of the country’s best known English writers. He is survived by his daughters, Anaheita Kapadia and Rookvain Sorabji, sons-in-law Arshish Kapadia and Armin Sorabji, and four grandchildren – Nainaz and Shayan Sorabji; and Freyana and Sanaya Kapadia.

Known for his short stories, Daruwalla was born in Lahore in 1937, and studied at Government College in Ludhiana. He joined the Indian Police Services (Uttar Pradesh cadre) in 1958 and rose through the ranks to becoming Special Assistant on International Affairs to then Prime Minister – Charan Singh (1970-80). He then spent a year at Oxford University on study leave as a ‘Queen Elizabeth II House Fellow’, in 1980-81. He later joined the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) where he was promoted to the rank of Secretary. His last post was as Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), which had the ultimate responsibility of integrating and interpreting strategic intelligence for the Cabinet.

Post retirement, he presided as the Zoroastrian Member of the National Commission for Minorities (2011 to 2014). In 2014, 19 years after his retirement from government service, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the President.

Even though he led a successful career in police and later at RAW, it was his literary acumen that gained him national and global fame. His first book of poetry, ‘Under Orion’, was published in 1970. Two years later, he received the Uttar Pradesh State Award for his second book, ‘Apparition In April’.

He won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, for his collection of poems, ‘The Keeper of The Dead’, in 1984, which he returned in October 2015, in protest against Sahitya Akademi’s failure “to speak out against ideological collectives that have used physical violence against authors.” His other book of poems, ‘Landscapes’, won him the Commonwealth Poetry Award (Asia) in 1987. His first novel, ‘For Pepper and Christ’ (2009) was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Fiction prize in 2010

He was known in his writers’ fraternity for not just his poetry but also his compassion, his aphorisms, or ‘Kekisms’ as they called it and his empathy for younger poets. He authored 17 books of poetry, short stories and novels. His books have been translated into Spanish, Swedish, Magyar (Hungarian), German and Russian. He attended poets’ conferences globally. In 2017, he was honoured with the ‘Poet Laureate Award’ by the Tata LitFest, Mumbai.