A Founder Editor of Muse India, a literary e-journal, who also had served as its Chief Editor, Ambika Ananth is a bi-lingual writer, poet, journalist, reviewer and a translator, who has twelve published works, both in English and Telugu in various genres like poetry, prose, short stories, creative writings. She is currently the Editor-Poetry of Muse India- www.museindia.com.
Her first poem in English appeared in an English Daily when she was 14 years old. Since then her creative writing continued and she does all that which can hone and better her writing skills.
Her English poetry has appeared in many National and International Anthologies and in ‘Indian Literature’ of Sahitya Akademi. Her Telugu short-story collection “Manchu Muthyalu” is taken up for study for MPhil Program by Kakatiya University. Her translation work has appeared in “Dravidian Poem” published by Dravidian University. She regularly contributes her articles to the English Daily “Deccan Herald’ and reviews books for ‘Indian Literature’ and ‘Muse India’.
She had translated nearly twenty titles of Children Literature for Pratham books and is now working for a translation project envisioned by ISCKON to impart value-based stories to children.
She is a Life-member of Poetry Society of India, Dhvanyaloka of Mysore, and Lekhini of Hyderabad. She is a recipient of Awards like Sahiti Yuva Ratna, Seshendra Award, Editor’s Choice Award, Michael Madhusudhan Dutt Award. She lives in Bangalore, India and can be reached at ambika.ananth@gmail.com
Solemnly to rape victims
This soiled act by a savage cannot begrime
the soil of your soul!
The impenetrable fortress of your self-esteem
cannot be plundered by this lewd act of a
wanton libertine.
Your beautiful looks, your delicate insides
are God's purposeful designs;
you hold the gentle saplings of tender life
nurturing within.
If sexual morbidity and human cruelty
disrupt the congenial environment
with your natural self-reviving capacity,
SPRING UP with renewed soul energy!
Don't go into psychological hibernation;
thieving is a crime and sin, not losing.
You are a victim of a rapist's tilted balance.
Your mind and spirit are in perfect equilibrium,
There is no shame or stigma;
push this bitter experience into a coldest grave
and forge ahead with a lustrous orb…
The tender blushing bud
with the fertile touch
of the eternal magician
opens her pristine petals
to rediscover every vein
that spreads colour
deep down to her heart.
Speaking to the soil in soft whispers,
she learns to bloom to the full,
feels the warm dawn of youth’s fragrance,
ages enough to feel the impulse
that makes her lean sunward
to show her splendour.
Awakened and aroused,
raring to reveal more and more
of her untouched perfection,
the bud
turns into a flower…
She waited
to break upon the world
her own sweet miracle
to spread love around herself
an olive branch to hang on..!
Both screaming in synchrony
He came out..
So tiny…so quivering, and
so ‘imperfect’..
twisted lifeless arms,
dangling thin strands for legs..
anomaly at the very conception-
the impassive verdict of doctors .
That minute,
she knew what real heart-ache meant
her cold tears fell into his pink baby palms
Is this a punishment, a retribution
and for what...??
she cried hoarse,
feeling a desperate need
to die, when…
his hot, hungry fish-mouth
clamped itself on her breast
A deep connection ran through her
she cuddled him closer
their hearts beating together
She saw him with
the eyes of a mother
“In this world
everyone is flawed
some from inside
some from outside
How are you different...?
We are a team now..
in this game of life”
The unifying principle
of ‘natural love’ binding,
he became the only reason
for her living…
The shrieks screams of humanity around
The deathly silence in his mind…
The blinding glaring lights of joy outside
The dense shadow of loneliness inside..
The circular siege of apathy surrounding
There seems no difference
between living or dying for him
Yet,
Hope stayed alight- in his eyes
With flashes of trust and optimism
The placard saying ‘ homeless’
quivers in his expectant hands…
A ruthless eternity -
Frozen in time,
of standing still at road side
a beatific smile spread on his face
at last,
as the last breath left him
in search of a ‘home’…
a warm womb
of a waiting mother..
somewhere..
(to all the homeless people world over)
As a storm burst,
as a river took a reverse course
pain flooded all over her,
a riot of noise filled in her breath
as she heaved, grunted, moaned
seams of moments opened,
new life unraveled
emerging from the warm innards,
inscribed the date on her heart.
A clock started ticking in her mind
feeling the first stirrings
in her breasts
a whisper in her heart
speaking the language
of the eternal magician
conjuring away
the intense pain
to turn it into
the golden secret
lying in a bundle
as pristine
as serene
as a page from
a hymn book
with
freshly inscribed
words of the Maker..
life, a difficult question
gets an answer
in these joyous moments
as the mother
holds this promise
from realized Heavens
in her eager trembling hands,
feeds from her full throbbing breasts…
