Poet And Author Eunice de Souza Remembered By Friends And Students On Her Birth Anniversary

For many, the late poet and author Dr Eunice de Souza was a great teacher, a friend and a colleague. Her readers remember her as a fearless personality who used her sharp sense of humour to comment on society through her words. Her poems often criticised the gender inequality and class hierarchies in society. St Xavier’s College, where she taught English, celebrated her birth anniversary on August 1.

On the occasion of her special day, a conversation with her close ones showed the lasting impression she left on those who were around her. 

Melanie Silgardo, poet and author, shares her memory of Dr de Souza, “My most enduring memory will have to be the first time I met her. She and Nisha da Cunha (then head of the English Department) were interviewing students for the BA degree. I had done my first two years at Sophia College and had passed with very poor grades. At seventeen, all I had to offer was a passion for reading, albeit popular fiction, which was the only ‘literature’ I knew and believed myself eminently qualified to. Nisha looked more and more doubtful, but Eunice smiled at me with that sparkle that only she could bring to the room. All she said was ‘You’ll have to work hard, but I don’t see why you shouldn’t have a place’. That meeting changed my life. She brought literary alchemy to the classroom; she knew how her teaching could transform.”

It was not just her students but also her colleagues who believed that she was an excellent teacher and author. Adil Jussawalla, a well-known Indian poet who was also a colleague of Dr de Souza, talks about her. “I was not in the class where she taught, but we were colleagues from the same English literature department at St Xavier’s College. By all accounts from her students, she was a great teacher. She had a way of being forthright, and that may have disturbed some students, but by and large, she was a very effective and good teacher.” 

He shares his memory, “This one time, we both had ponytails, and both of us together entered the lobby of the building, Palm Springs at Cuff Parade, where we lived. The security noticed our profiles, and he started laughing because we both had ponytails. And then we also started laughing.” 

Her students fondly remember her as a highly intellectual teacher who would give impactful advice. Cedric Serpes, a visiting faculty member at the National Institute of Design and a student of Dr de Souza, says, “I started writing poetry in college and became a songwriter. I studied literature under her. One day, she told me, ‘You know the problem with you is that you deliberately fall in love with people who are wrong for you just so that you can get material to write your poems and songs.’ And I thought it was insightful.  She had identified the pattern that evolved in my writing.”

Besides being a stern teacher, she also had light moments with her students. Kinjal Dagli, a senior content producer and her student, says, “I’ll never forget the day a student mispronounced ‘banal’ in class. Eunice, who found most things outside of poetry banal, burst out laughing—a real, unexpected belly laugh. It was a rare glimpse of her joy and a reminder that beneath that stern exterior was someone with a sharp sense of humour and deep passion for language.”

Apart from her love for literature, Dr de Souza was also an animal lover. Sharon Irani, a researcher and a writer, talks about how she bonded with her due to similar interests. She says, “I remember she had a rickshaw driver named Ganesh who would take her around in the morning, and she would feed the stray dogs near her house in Kalina. One of the reasons we bonded was also because my mother is an animal lover and feeds the dogs, and she also used to feed the dogs in her neighbourhood.” 

Irani worked closely with her for the magazine Helter Skelter, an anthology of poetry and write-ups. Along with Dr Meena Kandasamy, Dr de Souza was the main figure behind selecting an anthology of poetry and new writing. The magazine holds a special importance as it was one of her last projects before she passed away in 2017, a few days before her birthday. 

Irani says, “On her birthday, she had a tradition where she would order cases of wine, and it was one of the most poignant moments for me when she passed, to find that the wine was already delivered in time for her next birthday on August 1st.”

Dr de Souza has left her students, readers, friends and colleagues with lifelong memories and learnings through her work. A journalist and copy editor, Revathy Menon, talks about her days as a student under her, “Whether it was us giggling when she called us ‘cabbages’ or the awe with which we watched her tap the last bit of ash off her cigarette into her coffee cup, only to go on to drink it, dregs and all. She wrote scathingly witty notes and remarks on our papers, which we cherished much more than we resented.”

Writer and full-time poet, Jane Bhandari, was a friend of hers and shared a funny moment she had with her. “We were friends and used to meet at literary events. We were at a poetry reading at the David Sassoon Library. My mind drifted and was brought back to life by her ferocious hiss, Don't snore!” Jane signs off.