KABULIWALA-RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Kabuliwala is a short story written by Rabindranath Tagore. It is a story which deals with Kabuliwala(Abdul Rehman Khan) and his customer Mini. Kabuliwala is basically a hawker who comes to Calcutta from Afganistan. He befriends a small bengali girl called Mini who use to remind him of his own daughter Amina back in Afghanistan. Though he was not in touch with his daughter, her memories didnt fade away from his mind. Later things went wrong and one of Kabuliwala's customer didnt return his money. When asked for returning, the customer starts abusing which makes Kabuliwala aggressive and he stabs the customer when he refuses to stop abusing. This brings prisonment to Kabuliwala for 10 years. On the day of his release he goes to see Mini, but discovers that Mini has grown up and was about to get married. Her parents were reluctant to let a murderer see their daughter. However after many pleas Kabuliwallah was allowed. Kabuliwallah brought wrapped in a piece of paper, nuts almonds,raisins for her, thinking Mini was still a small child who use to resemble his daughter. The sight of Mini in a bridal wear kindled in him the memories of his daughter, who he never thought would grow up like Mini. He had tears in his eyes. Her dad identified Rehman, as a father and gave him a bank note, so that he could go back to his country and see his daughter whose finger prints he carried all the time. This story is all about the beautiful realation between the daughter and the father. Though separated physically, the memories sustain our love for our child. Only we need a spark to light up those memories. Such was the case with Mini who woke up the affection in Kabuliwala, for his long forgotton daughter in a far away land, thus its like this.
Sanchita Bagchi.
Roll no-2