Book Review : The Wheel Turned

Title : The Wheel Turned
Author : Malathi Ramachandran
Publisher : Pustak Mahal
ISBN : 9788122311044


The story unfolds in the pristine and picturesque valleys of Himachal against the backdrop of 1960's Chinese invasion in Indian territories. As mere pawns in a game, Meena and Anand find themselves together in a wedlock completely unprepared for their sudden change of status. Meena reconciles with her destiny and accepts the relationship but it takes a little longer for Anand to overcome his misplaced resentment against Meena. After initial hiccups, they experience the blissful married life which turns out to be very short lived. Anand leaves with his unit to protect North Eastern Indian borders. While in action, he becomes untraceable, leaving no clue for the search teams to follow. Like a house of cards, Meena's life and her dreams come crumbling down, but she retains her faith on her husband and on her magical Tibetan Prayer Wheel. The wheel, which she believes brought her and Anand together initially and the same wheel would work its wonders again in uniting them. The Prayer Wheel signifies Meena's undying faith and belief that everything will be as it was during those wonderful days when she reveled in deep affection and love of Anand.

But she learns that her belief is not good enough. One of Anand's colleagues, another Army officer, expresses his love for her and his desire to marry her. She finds herself on the crossroads of life where some very difficult decisions are to be taken - whether to keep hanging from the string of unfazed belief, waiting for Anand or to accept the reality and move on. Is it easy to move on, is it even possible to replace Anand in her mind?

Does her prized possession - the prayer wheel shows its magic again and brings Anand back to her or does it leave her disillusioned?

This is the story of an Indian soldier's deep commitment for his motherland, his courage and undiminished spirits. This is the story of endless trust, yearning and waiting of a wife but more than that, this is a story of destiny's royal game. The prayer wheel symbolizes unstoppable life's wheel, which reinforces that time does not wait for anything or anybody.

An interesting story, no signs of attempting to be a literary masterpiece though, felt like a story from a Bollywood movie. Readers may feel a little disconnect in the sense that the prayer wheel which seemingly is the pivot of the story gets forgotten as the story progresses, it could have been made more integral to the narrative. This book belongs to the category of - read it once, enjoy it, shut it and forget it.