International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

E-ISSN: 2582-2160   •   Impact Factor: 9.24

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Call for Paper Volume 7, Issue 4 (July-August 2025) Submit your research before last 3 days of August to publish your research paper in the issue of July-August.
Submit Research Paper Join as a Reviewer

Plagiarism is checked by the leading plagiarism checker TurnItIn

Call for Paper

Volume 7 Issue 4
July-August 2025

Submit your research paper

Indexing Partners
Academia Advanced Sciences Index Bielefeld Academic Search Engine CiteSeer DRJI Google Scholar Independent Search Engine & Directory Network ISI (International Scientific Indexing) Issuu Mendeley Research Networks
RefSeek ResearcherId - Thomson Reuters ResearchGate Scirus Scribd Semantic Scholar UTeM - Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka Wiki for Call for Papers WorldCat Zenodo

Navigating Faith, Perception, and Identity in Arun Kolatkar's “The Bus”

Author(s) Saurav Haldar
Country India
Abstract Arun Kolatkar’s poem “The Bus” frames a pilgrimage journey as a site of philosophical, social, and spiritual conflict. The pilgrimage setting is used to critique modern Indian society. This paper examines some of the interconnected themes identified in the poem: the bus as a metaphor for postcolonial state failure and collective spiritual blindness; caste identity and the old pilgrim’s socially conditioned role; the liminal nature of the journey (ritual pilgrimage versus personal quest); the effect of the second-person narrative voice on subjectivity; and the poem’s sensory imagery as philosophical commentary. Analysing the different metaphors and motifs, such as the state transport bus, the castemark, and the “sawed off” sunbeam used in the poem as a backbone, this study integrates critical perspectives from various thinkers and global theorists. The analysis delves deep into the poem's symbolism, the speaker's subjective experience, and its satirical commentary on societal and religious practices. It tries to examine the mundane journey of “The Bus” as a critique of postcolonial India: the dilapidated bus and its dark tarpaulin symbolize a failed state and “blind” faith, the castemark inscribes caste-conditioned identity, and the journey’s dissonant imagery. The fragmented second-person oration of the poem engages the readers in its ideological matrix. In sum, the poem's irony-laden pilgrimage exposes the confrontation of tradition and modernity in contemporary India, inviting readers to become co-creators of meaning.
Keywords Indian Poetry, Spiritualism, Skepticism
Field Arts
Published In Volume 7, Issue 4, July-August 2025
Published On 2025-07-20
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i04.51584
Short DOI https://doi.org/g9tz93
View / Download PDF File

Share this



E-ISSN 2582-2160
CrossRef

CrossRef DOI is assigned to each research paper published in our journal.

IJFMR DOI prefix is
10.36948/ijfmr

Downloads
Research Paper Format Copyright Permission Form and Undertaking Form Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 4Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 3Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 2

All research papers published on this website are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, and all rights belong to their respective authors/researchers.

CC-BY-SA Open Access

About IJFMR
Fees & Payment
Current Issue
Publication Archive 		Submit Research Paper
Track Submission Status
Publication Guidelines
Publication Ethics
Peer Review & Plagiarism 		Join as a Reviewer
Editors & Reviewers
Reviewer Referral Program
Get Reviewer Membership Certi. 		Website/Journal Policies
Usage Policy
Content Policies
Privacy Policy
Contact Us +91-9687-828-838 editor@ijfmr.com