Kabuliwallah

“Kabuliwallah” opens with the narrator describing his five-year-old daughter, Mini. She “can’t stop talking for a minute” and is frequently scolded by her mother for it. The narrator, on the other hand, thinks that it’s “unnatural” when Mini is quiet, and so he spends a lot of time talking to her and answering her many questions. One morning, Mini chats with her father while he’s working on an adventure novel. She looks out the window and spots a Kabuliwallah named Rahamat and starts calling to him. However, when he comes over, Mini runs into another room, convinced that his large bags are full of children, not goods.

A few days later, the narrator finds Mini sitting next to Rahamat and talking to him with a pile of raisins and nuts in her lap. The narrator tells Rahamat not to give her any more treats and gives him a half-rupee, which Rahamat takes. Later, Mini’s mother scolds Mini for having a half-rupee, which Mini says Rahamat gave her. The narrator saves Mini “from her mother’s wrath” and brings her outside where she tells him that Rahamat has come by almost every day to listen to her talk. Among the numerous jokes they have together, one starts with Rahamat telling Mini, “don’t ever go off to your śvaśur-bāṛi.” Mini doesn’t understand what this means because the narrator and his wife are “progressive people” who “don’t keep talking to [their] young daughter about her future marriage,” and so she innocently asks him if he is going to his. Rahamat jokingly shakes a fist and says he’ll “settle him,” making Mini laugh.

It is autumn, which the narrator associates with kings setting out “on their world-conquests,” which further reminds him that he has never left Calcutta even though he longs to explore the world. He has an active imagination and frequently imagines distant lands, but he is “a rooted sort of individual” and whenever he does leave his “familiar spot” he will “practically collapse.” Because of this, the narrator is happy to spend a morning just listening to Rahamat’s stories of Afghanistan and traveling. Mini’s mother is very different: she is scared of the outside world and imagines it is full of extreme dangers. Unhappy with Rahamat, a complete stranger, spending so much time with Mini, she warns the narrator to keep an eye on him. When the narrator tells her there is nothing to worry about, she talks about the possibility of Mini being kidnapped and sold into slavery. Rahamat, however, continues to come and the narrator continues to enjoy seeing him with Mini.

Rahamat is preparing to go home. Part of these preparations is to go all around Calcutta and collect money that customers owe him, but he always makes time in the evening to stop at the narrator’s house to talk with Mini. One morning, the narrator hears something going on in the streets and looks out the window to see Rahamat, covered in blood, being led down the street in handcuffs. The narrator runs outside, and Rahamat tells him that he got into a physical altercation with a customer who had refused to pay and, during the fight, he stabbed the customer. Mini comes out and asks Rahamat if he’s being taken to his śvaśur-bāṛi, and he says that he is. Rahamat is sent to jail. It does not take long for Mini to forget Rahamat and find new friends, first with the groom (someone who takes care of horses) and then with girls her age. She stops visiting her father’s study and the narrator says he “dropped her,” as well.

A few years later, the narrator and his wife are preparing for Mini’s wedding day. The house is full of people setting things up and the narrator has isolated himself in his study. Rahamat suddenly arrives and tells the narrator he had been released from jail the day before, which reminds the narrator of his crime and sets him on edge. The narrator tells Rahamat that they are busy and he will have to go, but Rahamat asks if he can see Mini. Once again the narrator tries to brush him off and Rahamat prepares to leave, but as he walks out the door he asks the narrator to give Mini some grapes, nuts, and raisins he brought for her as a reminder of their past friendship. The narrator gets some money to pay Rahamat for them, but he refuses payment and tells the narrator that he had come with his own daughter “in mind,” not to do business.

Rahamat pulls “a crumpled piece of paper” out of the breast pocket of his shirt and shows the narrator the handprint of his daughter, Parvati, that he carries with him while he travels for work. Seeing it, the narrator “forgot then that he was an Afghan raisin-seller and I was a Bengali Babu,” instead recognizing that “he was a father just as I am a father.” This changes the narrator’s mind about sending Rahamat away and instead he calls Mini down. When she comes in, she’s “dressed as a bride” and acts shy and uncomfortable. Rahamat tries to joke with her as he used to, asking if she’s going to her śvaśur-bāṛi, but instead of laughing and asking questions, Mini “blushed […] and looked away.” The narrator’s “heart ache[s].”

When Mini leaves, Rahamat suddenly realizes that his daughter, like Mini, will have grown up and be different from the little girl he once knew. As Rahamat thinks about Afghanistan and his daughter, the narrator pulls out some money and asks Rahamat to use it to get home. He tells Rahamat that, “by your blessed reunion, Mini will be blessed.” Giving Rahamat the money means that Mini’s wedding party is not as grand as it might have been, but the narrator is happy with it, believing that “the ceremony was lit by a kinder, more gracious light.”