Literary Laurels

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Literary Laurels

Young poet Aiswarya T. Anish's long list of achievements are proof of her talent that will see her move to the big stage soon. Published in The Hindu, May, 17, 2011 by M.P. PRAVEEN

More than 400 hundred poems, two novels — with two more nearing completion — and a collection of short stories to her credit. The Crescent Smile, her first book of 41 selected poems, is about to be published next month. In between, she also takes spoken English classes for 30 professionals who are much older than her.

Aiswarya T. Anish, a Std IX student, dons the multiple roles with ease.

Nature-inspired

Hailing from the picturesque hamlet of Mangalam in Alapuzha district, the youngster cites nature as her biggest inspiration. For someone who has written so much in such short period, it is not difficult to believe that she wrote her first poem at the age of three. Written in Malayalam, it was about a butterfly, Aiswarya recollects.

Soon, she switched to English. “English is such a fascinating language”, is her reason for that shift. Apart from nature, any incident that moves her inspires her to write.

The tragedy spawned by the tsunami was one such incident that moved her into writing the poem “Graveyard”. It was later translated into Arabic and published on the Internet.

Memorable lines

However, Aiswarya's favourite lines are those from the poem “The Non-Poet's Philosophy”:

Intrusions in delusions ,

allusions of illusions,

infinite, widespread,

uncorrupt, unsaid…

Those lines, she says, came to her like a stroke of lightning one midnight. “I didn't even know the meaning of those words. Later when I checked the dictionary it somehow matched the context,” Aiswarya reminisces.

While those being her favourite lines, she has written far better verses like these lines from the poem “Crumbling Leaves..No They Are Fragments of Lives”:

Each day bringing bitterness and desolation,

People in shacks built on quicksand,

With no semblance of hope at hand,

Paintings of life roughly drawn…

Aiswarya's poems have already been published in two portals — the American website jbstillwater and in Triond.

“I am the youngest guest poet of jbstillwater,” she says full of pride.

She was bestowed the Lion's Excellence Award and was also chosen for the audience award at a poetry camp held by the US Consulate in Chennai.

While taking pride in her way with words, Aiswarya, who loves science, aspires to join IIT in the future. If that raises a few eyebrows pat comes the reasoning: “If Chetan Bhagat (popular Indian writer) can be both, why can't I?”