9. The Spinning Wheel

"Oh God! Let me die when one of my hands is on the handle of the spinning wheel and the other is holding a silver!"

Who would pray like this?

Gandhiji! Who else could it be?

He loved the spinning wheel.

It was his vow to spin daily without fail. Even though he was very busy, he would never avoid spinning yarn.

He kept his spinning wheel with him even while traveling. He would start spinning as soon as he had spare time. He used to insist on spinning during illness also.

He would also take his dearest spinning wheel with him whenever he had to go to jail.

When he was in Yerawada jail he used to spin on a two wheeled spinning wheel. He thought a lot while spinning and created a 'small and delicate', 'sleek and sweet' Yerawada spinning wheel.

Gandhiji called the wheel a 'Kamdhenu' - a cow that could fulfill our every wish!

He said so because spinning yarn could offer clothes to crores of countrymen, as well as food to the hungry. Gandhiji called it a Kamdhenu because he believed that it could even help our countrymen get independence. The sound of the wheel felt like sweet music to him.

Crores of our countrymen remained hungry even after hard labour. How can we feel one with them? We should also do some hard work. So Gandhiji preached that each one of us should spin yarn for half an hour everyday so as to feel one with them.

Gandhiji had the spinning wheel sketched on our tri-color flag. He announced that the nation, which cared for the millions of its poor countrymen, was a truly liberated nation.