Keki.N.Daruwalla or Keki Nasserwanji Daruwalla is counted among the most notable writers in English. Although he belongs to the community of Parsis in India, he prefers to be remembered as an Indian poet in English. In the year 1970, Daruwalla`s first collection of Poems "Under Orion" was published. Some of the other works of the poet includes; The Keeper of Dead, Apparition in April, Crossing of Rivers, for which bagged the Sahitya Academy Award in the year 1984.
Another literary work of Daruwalla, `Landscape`, brought for him the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Asia in the year 1987. One of his publications is "The Map-Maker". Sword and Abyss is the collection of short stories of Keki.N.Daruwall which was published in the year 1979. Daruwalla has also edited an anthology of poetry entitled, "Two Decades of Indian Poetry", which is regarded as one of the notable works for its intellectual strength, maturity and social awareness. It focuses on reality, environmental concern and for its economy of language. Poetry written by Daruwalla possesses themes which vary from self-betrayal, death, love and lack of harmony to identity of individual.
As a matter of fact, his poetry stems instantly from the life around him. He served as a police officer in the Indian police Service till his retirement and it offered him various opportunities to work in so many parts of the country and met the rough realities of life which lead to crime, communal riots, and other similar events from which the poet draws substance for his poetry. Even if belonging to the Parsi community in India, Daruwalla wants to present himself as an Indian poet writing in English.
The Parsi community rarely figures in the works of Keki.N.Daruwalla. There are however some references to the Tower of Silence and a number of other similar Parsi symbols and metaphors. Daruwalla does not wish to be stated as a Parsi poet. According to him his Indian identity of a creative writer is of greater importance than the label of a Parsi writer.
Daruwalla is thus not interested in segregating the literary creations of the Parsis since creative writings need to be judged based on its literary merits, moral and aesthetic values and not based on ethnicity. The question which concern most of the Parsi writers is however centered in their ethnicity.
