Esther David

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Esther David (March 17, 1945— ) is a Jewish-Indian author, an artist and a sculptor.^[1] She was born into a Bene Israel Jewish family in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. ^[2]

Her father, Reuben David was a hunter-turned-veterinarian, who founded the Kamala Nehru Zoological Garden and Balvatika in the city of Ahmedabad. Her mother Sarah, was a school teacher. ^[3] As a child she spent a lot of time in the zoo, watching and communicating with the animals her father nurtured there.

After her schooling in Ahmedabad, she joined MS University, Baroda, as a student of Fine Arts and Art History. There she met Sankho Chaudhary, a renouned sculptor, who taught her sculpture and Art History. After her graduation she returned to Ahmedabad and started her career as a professor in art history and art appreciation. She taught at the CEPT University and NIFT. She started writing about art and became the Times of India art critic, a prominent national English daily. Later she became a columnist for Femina, a women’s magazine, the “Times of India” and other leading national dallies.

Her first book, The Walled City was published in 1997 by East West Books, Madras. It is a story about the forces that unite and divide generations and communities in the walled city of Ahmedabad. It was re-published by Syracuse University Press USA and is listed in the library of modern Jewish Literature. Her next book was, ‘By the Sabarmati’, followed by ‘The Book of Esther’, ‘The Book of Rachel’. In August 2007 she wrote her first book for teenagers, titled ‘My Father’s Zoo’. The book was a tribute to her father and contains stories of the animals that lived or still live in the zoo in Ahmedabad.^[4] Her latest Book, Shalom India Housing Society was released on November 4, 2007.

A single mother and grandmother of two, she’s now a full time writer she lives in Ahmedabad.

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