ANIAMMA
JOSEPH
Striving For Survival
1
I’ve seen
a cockroach striving for survival
When it’s
hit by pesticide.
To retain
the canal of life,
In an
ant, no struggle at all; over in a flash.
Starvation
and misery in slums,
No
rights, no claims, no voice
Somewhere
out in the fringes
Uncared
and unattended.
Scenes of
neglect and callousness
In
Somalia; agony writ on baby faces
Just
fleshless-bones that can be counted
What do
they survive on!
When the
deadly virus spread
Amid
panic and fear in all corners
How we
withdraw into our own shell
To hold
on to the thread of life
Striving For Survival
2
The
stories of the splendid waste of life
Come from
war-front and shipwreck
Tho’
realities stark do also come from
Scenes of
struggle for survival
The man
who gave his lot to another
The man
who grabbed at a lady’s chance
When one
shows the glory of sacrifice
Another
shows the ruthless selfishness
At the
frantic moment to clutch on life
You don’t
know how you behave
When food
is thrown among the refugees
We are
worse than animals for a morsel
In crises
people hoard things
They are
striving for survival
Do they
care about others?
No, they
care only about their needs
Learning
hasn’t made us humane
It hasn’t
made us refined either
Who can
say in dire need of thirst and hunger
“Thy need
is greater than mine?”
Striving For Survival
3
Is it the
survival of the fittest
Or, the
survival of the wisest
That does
matter? Both!
Also
survival of the weakest!
We shall
overcome the lowliest of penury
The meanest
of hardship
The
deadliest of pestilence
The
magnitude of the flood
We shall
wipe off all our tears
We shall
smile again through our tears
We shall
survive every calamity
We are
made of that stuff!
“Sweet
are the uses of adversity;”
“There’s
a silver lining to every cloud;”
“Tough
times do not last; tough people do;”
These are
the maxims which bring resilience!
To Play the Tambourine Again…
Lo, the
tambourine is stilled
The mirth
has melted away
The heart
lies devastated
It lies
dry and withered
Dark
gloom pervades everywhere
A deadly
vacuum is seen
Fear
grips men and women
Innocent
children know not where to play
The world
has come to a standstill
Joy has
vanished; noises are muted
No place
to go for revelry
No
hilltop to view the stars
No valley
to be in the shade
“The
gaiety of the tambourines is stilled,
the noise
of the revelers has stopped,”*
No one is
safe; the King in the palace
The
common man in the street
The
rulers and the ruled
The sick
and the healthy
The rich
and the poor
All
enfolded in fear
The virus
reigns supreme
As it was
in the days of the Pharaoh
Centuries
farther back
We are
puny, little beings hapless
Helpless
and aimless
A
levelling is to happen
All the
hills will be turned into valleys
Everything
to be rolled back into plains
Let’s
look up to the Lord, exalt His name
Repent of
our sins; of the thousand times
We
abandoned God, deviated from His direction
Let’s
love and adore our dear Lord
Let’s
pray for the disease to disappear
The gloom
to dispel
The joy
to return
To play
the tambourine again
With kith
and kin
To sing
again the glory of God.
(*
Isaiah: 24)
ANIAMMA
JOSEPH
Prof.Dr.
ANIAMMA JOSEPH (Kuriakose:) Aniamma is basically a story writer; but she
writes poems in English and Malayalam.
She started writing in her school classes. Continued with College
Magazines, Dailies and a few magazines. She has written two novels in Malayalam; one book of essays
in Malayalam; a Non-fiction(translation) in English and a Novel (translation)
in English. She has written short stories and plays as well. In 1985, she won
Kesari Award from a leading Publisher DC Books, Kottayam for her first novel Ee
Thuruthil Njan Thaniye. She was a professor of English in colleges and obtained
her PhD from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala in American Literature. She
presented a paper at Lincoln University, Nebraska in USA in 2005. She is
President of a literary organisation for women and girls interested in
Malayalam and English Literature, Aksharasthree: The Literary Woman, based at
Kottayam, Kerala. It was her dream child and the Association has so far
published 23 books of the members.
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