ANIAMMA JOSEPH


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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