Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca was born to the poet Nissim Ezekiel and his wife, Daisy Ezekiel. She hails from a Bene-Israel Indian-Jewish family and grew up in Bombay. The Jews blended seamlessly into the Indian fabric, and this ethos of harmonious integration forms the foundational bulwark of Mendonca’s poetry. Mendonca attended Queen Mary School, run by Protestant missionaries. Later, at St. Xavier’s College, Bombay, the passion with which the professors delivered their lectures left an indelible mark on her. Mendonca holds a master’s degree in English and French from the University of Bombay and another master’s degree in education from Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England.