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The Narrator
Rahamat is a traveling fruit seller from Afghanistan, or a Kabuliwala, and is often referred to as such. He is first seen wearing “dirty baggy clothes,” which indicates that he is from a lower class. As he is not from Calcutta and speaks broken Bengali, Rahamat is something of an ostracized figure in town, and the narrator treats him with suspicion until the man makes friends with the narrator’s five-year-old daughter, Mini. Rahamat bribes Mini with pistachios to talk to him at first, but eventually they develop a real friendship. He visits the narrator’s house every day and brings Mini more nuts, fruits, and raisins, and listens to her excitable chatter for as long as he can before he has to return to work. Occasionally, he also talks with the narrator about Afghanistan and what life is like there. One day while he is collecting debts from customers in the neighborhood before returning to his home, Rahamat gets into a fight with someone who won’t pay him and stabs the customer. Rahamat is promptly arrested and led away by the police, but he has the chance to explain to the narrator what happened and where he is going. Eight years later, Rahamat is released from jail and goes straight to the narrator’s home to see Mini again, but is shocked to see that she has grown up. It is Mini’s wedding day, and when she comes into the room to see Rahamat, she is wearing her wedding clothes. Rahamat tries to rekindle their former friendship by telling her an old joke they used to have about her going to her father-in-law’s home, but instead of laughing, Mini becomes shy and blushes before silently leaving the room. This reminds Rahamat that his own daughter, Parvati (who still lives in Afghanistan), will have grown up and become a different person. The story ends with the narrator giving Rahamat the money he will need to get home and be reunited with his family, the men having bonded over the love they both have for their daughters.
Rahamat / The “Kabuliwala” Quotes in Kabuliwala
The Kabuliwala quotes below are all either spoken by Rahamat / The “Kabuliwala” or refer to Rahamat / The “Kabuliwala”. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Kabuliwala Quotes
[…] I saw my daughter sitting on a bench in front of the door, nattering unrestrainedly; and the Kabuliwala was sitting at her feet, listening—grinning broadly, and from time to time making comments in his hybrid sort of Bengali. In all her five years of life, Mini had never found so patient a listener, apart from her father.
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Rahamat would say to Mini, “Little one, don’t ever go off to your śvaśur-bāṛi.’ […] She […] couldn’t clearly understand what Rahamat meant; yet to remain silent and give no reply was wholly against her nature, so she would turn the idea round and say, ‘Are you going to your śvaśur-bāṛi?’ Shaking his huge fist at an imaginary father-in-law Rahamat said, “I’ll settle him!”
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Mini came straight out with her ‘Are you going to your śvaśur-bāṛi?”
‘Yes, I’m going there now,’ said Rahamat with a smile. But when he saw that his reply had failed to amuse Mini, he brandished his handcuffed fists and said, “I would have killed my śvaśur, but how can I with these on?’
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Living at home, carrying on day by day with our routine tasks, we gave no thought to how a free-spirited mountain-dweller was passing his years behind prison-walls. […] [Mini] even stopped coming to her father’s study. And I, in a sense, dropped her.
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I had never confronted a would-be murderer before; I shrank back at the sight of him. I began to feel that on this auspicious morning it would be better to have the man out of the way.
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Every year Rahamat carried this memento of his daughter in his breast-pocket when he came to sell raisins in Calcutta’s streets: as if the touch of that soft, small, childish hand brought solace to his huge, homesick breast. My eyes swam at the sight of it. I forgot then that he was an Afghan raisin-seller and I was a Bengali Babu. I understood then that he was as I am, that he was a father just as I am a father. The handprint of his little mountain-dwelling Parvati reminded me of my own Mini.
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Mini now knew the meaning of śvaśur-bāṛi; she couldn’t reply as before—she blushed at Rahamat’s question and looked away. I recalled the day when Mini and the Kabuliwala had first met. My heart ached.
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Mini left the room, and Rahamat, sighing deeply, sat down on the floor. He suddenly understood clearly that his own daughter would have grown up too since he last saw her, and with her too he would have to become re-acquainted: he would not find her exactly as she was before. Who knew what had happened to her these eight years?
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Get the entire Kabuliwala LitChart as a printable PDF.
Rahamat / The “Kabuliwala” Character Timeline in Kabuliwala
The timeline below shows where the character Rahamat / The “Kabuliwala” appears in Kabuliwala. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Kabuliwala
...which the main characters are escaping from a prison—but Mini suddenly catches sight of a Kabuliwala outside. He is dressed in "dirty baggy clothes” and carrying boxes of grapes. The narrator...
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Hearing Mini yelling about him, the Kabuliwala comes up to the house, but Mini suddenly becomes afraid that the Kabuliwala actually carries...
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A few days after the Kabuliwala’s first appearance, the narrator walks out of the house and sees Mini sitting and talking...
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...scolding Mini for somehow getting her hands on a half rupee. Mini explains that the Kabuliwala gave it to her, and the girl’s mother is upset with her for accepting it....
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One of the jokes between Mini and the Kabuliwala—whose name is Rahamat—involves her eventually having to leave to go to her śvaśur-bāṛi. The narrator...
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...loves imagining faraway places and “the free and pleasant life” he could have there. The Kabuliwala, who has traveled far more than the narrator, offers him an opportunity to hear stories...
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...marauders.” Because of this, she repeatedly warns the narrator to keep an eye on the Kabuliwala. When the narrator tries to convince her that the Kabuliwala is safe, she launches on...
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The time eventually comes for the Kabuliwala to collect his debts and return to his home. He is busy all day during...
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...he hears “a sudden commotion in the street.” From his study, the narrator sees “our Rahamat” being taken away in handcuffs, covered in blood. One of the policemen bringing him away...
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The narrator goes outside to ask what happened and, between what the Kabuliwala and the policemen tell him, he gathers that a neighbor who owed Rahamat money refused...
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The Kabuliwala is sentenced to prison for many years, and the narrator and Mini soon forget him....
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...busy as preparations take place, but the narrator stays in his study to work. The Kabuliwala suddenly appears in the room unannounced and it is difficult to recognize him because his...
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The narrator nervously asks the Kabuliwala to leave because they are busy, but as he’s leaving the Kabuliwala asks to see...
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The Kabuliwala reaches into his shirt, “somewhere close to his heart,” and pulls out “a crumpled piece...
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Mini comes down wearing her wedding clothes, which startles the Kabuliwala. After a moment, he addresses her as “Little one” and asks her if she is...
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The narrator gives the Kabuliwala some money and tells him to go back to Afghanistan, and that by his “blessed...
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