Analysis Tagore’s story “Kabuliwala”
Tagore’s story “Kabuliwala” is about a 5-year-old Bengali girl named Minnie and an Afghan moneylender named Abdur Rahman or Rahamat.
The story follows “The Fruitseller,” a Pathan from Kabul, Afghanistan, who travels to Calcutta every year to sell dry fruits, and during his time there, he grows paternal attachment for Mini, a five-year-old child from a middle-class aristocratic family.
The story brilliantly links a sense of mutual affection as well as the two’s unusual friendship.
Rabindranath Tagore wrote Kabuliwala in Bengali in 1892, during his “Sadhana” phase from 1891 to 1895.
topic
The central theme of this story is filial devotion or dads’ strong love for their offspring. The author and his daughter Mini, the Kabuliwala “Rahmat” and his own daughter in Afghanistan, and the Kabuliwala “Rahmat” and Mini are three examples of filial piety in the novel. Mini and her father, and Rahamat and his daughter, are two father-daughter relationships featured in the novel.
What happens at the end of Kabuliwala’s story?
The story may have ended with the Narrator inviting Rahamat to Mini’s wedding, and the Kabuliwala reuniting with his daughter, leading a happy life in Kabul, and both returning to thank the Narrator.
summery Tagore’s story “Kabuliwala”
The plot The Kabuliwala is told by Mini’s father, who is five years old. The plot revolves around the talkative and naïve Mini and Rahamat, a hawker of dry fruits from Kabul.
Mini observed a Kabuliwala outside her window one morning and called out to him. With a turban on his head and a bag slung over his shoulder, he was a tall, unkempt man. Mini dashed inside as soon as the Kabuliwala approached the home. Her father bought some dried fruits from him and struck up a conversation with him, learning about him and his family in Kabul. Then he contacted Mini and presented her to Rahamat, the Kabuliwala, in order to help her overcome her phobia of him. Mini received some dried fruits from Rahamat’s bag.
Mini’s father later discovered that his daughter and Kabuliwala had formed a wonderful bond, and the two of them met almost every day. Mini’s tittle-tattle was patiently listened to by the Kabuliwala, who also lavished her with nuts and raisins. Mini was entertained by the Kabuliwala’s anecdotes about his homeland.
Mini’s mother, Rama, was concerned about her daughter’s blossoming friendship with the Kabuliwala, fearing that he might kidnap her and sell her as a slave.
The Kabuliwala was suddenly struck by calamity. For slashing one of his customers who owed him money, he was charged and imprisoned to several years in prison. The Kabuliwala went to Mini’s residence after his release from prison to meet her. He discovered, however, that Mini had grown and that her marriage day had arrived.
Mini’s father was not pleased to see the Kabuliwala on that particular day and thought it unlucky to allow him to see Mini. He was able to convince the Kabuliwala to leave. The Kabuliwala gave a few grapes and raisins for Mini while leaving. Mini’s father was then shown a tattered piece of paper with a charcoal print of a little hand. It belonged to his daughter. Mini’s father, overwhelmed with compassion for the Kabuliwala, called Mini. When the Kabuliwala saw Mini in her wedding gown, he was taken aback by the fact that she had been a young woman he had never seen before. Mini seemed uncomfortable and shied away when she remembered their long-forgotten friendship. It was incredibly difficult for the Kabuliwala to connect with facts. Mini’s father, and saw the Kabuliwala’s dilemma, promised him sufficient cash to give to Kabul and join his daughter. Despite having to cut back on some of the wedding festivities, he was pleased with his humane gesture to a concerned fat man.