Legends

Simile Repetition

Personificaion Imagery

Synesthesia
Symbolism
Metonymy

The Wheel
BY VINDA KARANDIKAR

1 1
Someone is about to come but doesn't. Is about The persona is expecting a possility of an event
happening but it never came true. The persona
tries to leave in the situation he/she is in but
to turn on the stairs but doesn't. decided not to do so.
2 2
I button my shirt The persona’s shirt with its dazzling blots
represents his/her the peculiar fate and life. The
blots talk about something that will never be
come from the laundry with all its dazzling blots, erased or removed and the persona doesn’ have
the choice but to live with it.
like one's peculiar fate.

3 2
I shut the door, sit quietly. The noise of the fan is much louder than the noise
that the household has ever made. Also, it depicts
a visual and tactile imagery wherein it was a
The fan begins to whirl summer time and the supposedly cool air that the
fan should give becomes a hot humid air.
and turn the air into a whirlpool of fire,

making a noise bigger than the house.

4
Someone is about to come and doesn't. 4
Again, the persona is expecting something to
happen but he/she decided to do nothing, like the
It doesn't matter. plain old wall which is firm and unmoving. He/She
choooses to be static and unproductive.
Calmly I lean against the wall,

become a wall.

5 5
A wounded bird on my shoulder laughs raucously, The persona felt hopeless and actually pitied
his/her stituation, that even a wounded bird is so
much better that the persona’s condition.
laughs at the shoulder it perches on!

6
My soul of flesh and blood puts a long thread in the needle's eye.
6
The “soul of flesh and blood” represents the
I stitch a patch on my son's umbrella. persona’s lifetime experiences while the “long
thread in the needle’s eye” symbolizes his/her life
7 span. The persona’s life maybe short but it
I pick his nose and name the pickings:
contains experiences that he/she used to mend
the future and guide the his/her children to not
I call one "Elephant" and another "Lion." gone astray like her/him. The umbrella represents
protection, hence, the persona’s overall
8
Someone is about to come and doesn't. Is about experiences were utilized to cover up the lack of
experiences by his son in order to protect him.
7
to turn on the stairs and doesn't. The act of picking a nose and naming the pickings as seen as
something silly and funny. In this part, the character is trying
9 to amuse himself by doing something silly.
I tickle my children,
9
The
8
actis repetition
There of tickling
in thishis children,
line again, showingand him but
emphasis, being
I believe
they tickle me in turn; I laugh, that instead of expecting for motivation and productivity, he is
tickled in return shows that the author is trying to
expected to feel amusement or joy due to his previous act in line 7.
enjoy and tohave fun. He but istries to tofeel happy but In
with a will; for I do not feel tickled. He expects feel amused not able achieve that feeling.
does not so.
common with the previous repeated lines, he again feels nothing.

10
It doesn't matter.
Interestingly, the poem ends with a line contrasting to the tone
and symbolism of the overall poem. The nine conches and one
I scan their fingers for signs: wheel symbolizes a happy life for the character’s children. The
poem ends in a positive note despite having a different tone for
Nine conches and one wheel. the rest of the poem. I believe this shows that there will always be
hope, and although life may look stationary and unprogressive,
this state of mind or situation will always change. The title of the
poem is “The Wheel” which I believe is a hint or indication of the
wheel of life, where life is like a wheel, having a transitory nature
and the existence of perpetual change. Because the wheel is
always turning, things do not last. When we are always happy, it
will not last as soon one may fall again. In turn, when times may
seem to fail, there will come a time when one rises, and hope is
regained.
Note: "Nine conches and one wheel" are formations of lines on the tips of fingers which, in
Indian palmistry, foretell a happy life.

Vinda Karandikar was a Marathi poet whose selected poems, The Sacred Heresy (1998),
is available in English. A former professor of English at the SIES College, Mumbai, he
translated Shakespeare’s King Lear (1974), Aristotle’s Poetics (1978), and Goethe’s
Faust, Part 1 (1981) into Marathi. He received India's prestigious Jnanpith Award in
2003. Karandikar died in Mumbai in 2010 at the age of 91.