Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Kabuliwala, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Connection
Fatherly Love
Curiosity and Growing Up
Summary
Analysis
The narrator’s precocious five-year-old daughter, Mini, started talking very young, and now she “can’t stop talking for a minute.” While her mother loses patience with Mini’s chatter and “often scolds her,” the narrator can’t bring himself to tell her to be quiet because it is “so unnatural” when she’s not talking. Because of this, Mini turns to her father when she wants to talk.
The opening of the story immediately establishes the close connection the narrator has with Mini in her early childhood. Mini’s constant chatter, especially starting from such a young age, reveals a natural curiosity with the world that can also be seen in her father, who takes as much pleasure in talking with Mini as she does in talking to him.
Themes
One morning while the narrator is working on the 17th chapter of his book, Mini approaches him and tells him that the gatekeeper doesn’t know the proper word for a crow—he calls it “a kauyā instead of a kāk”—but the narrator realizes that she has actually misunderstood because the gatekeeper speaks a different language. However, before the narrator can explain this to her, Mini tells him that Bhola told her “an elephant in the sky squirts water through its trunk” to make it rain. Again, the narrator cannot answer her because she abruptly asks “what relation” her mother is to him. The narrator is unsure how to answer and so he tells her to go play, but she sits on the floor next to him and plays.
Mini is not just a curious child, but an intelligent one. As such, her mind makes one leap after another, leaving her father scrambling to keep up with her train of thought. Mini obviously takes pleasure in learning and knowing, and is proud of the fact that she knows the “right” word for a crow and isn’t taken in by Bhola’s myth of an “elephant in the sky.” The narrator is also eager to share, but he wants to teach her more and correct her mistakes. This innocent exchange—probably one Mini’s mother would have scolded Mini for bothering her with—highlights the kind of playful, loving relationship they have with one another.
Themes
The narrator continues working on his book—an adventure story in 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 thinks that the Kabuliwala “spells trouble” and laments that he won’t get to finish the chapter he was working on.
The narrator is working on an adventure story, which takes on new significance later when he reveals how much he wants to travel the world. The narrator explores and goes on adventures through his writing. The narrator only sees “trouble” in the Kabuliwala, meaning he is already slightly biased towards him and will treat him as an inferior rather than an equal.
Themes
Hearing Mini yelling about him, the Kabuliwala comes up to the house, but Mini suddenly becomes afraid that the Kabuliwala actually carries children in his bags, so she runs away to another part of the house. Not wanting to be rude, the narrator invites the Kabuliwala in and buys something from him while they talk about Afghani politics and the present conflict between the British and the Russians in Afghanistan. Although the Kabuliwala asks about Mini and the narrator calls her into the room “To dispel her groundless fears,” she refuses to go up to him and instead eyes the Kabuliwala “suspiciously.”
The curious and enthusiastic Mini suddenly becomes quite shy here, and her fear of the new overcomes the curiosity she displayed earlier when she started yelling about the Kabuliwala. The narrator’s desire to “dispel” what he recognizes as “groundless fears” also reveals his desire to teach her more about the world so that she won’t be so afraid of it. He wants her to be curious—but more than that, he wants her to be brave when faced with the new, so she can move forward with more confidence.
Themes
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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 with the Kabuliwala, who is seemingly very happy to listen to her and tries to make himself understood in his “hybrid sort of Bengali.” The narrator notes that besides himself, Mini has “never found so patient a listener.” The narrator also notices that Mini is holding a pile of nuts and raisins, so he tells the Kabuliwala not to give her anymore and gives him half a rupee for what he has already given her before leaving.
Cleary Mini and the Kabuliwala have forged some sort of connection with each other, which is surprising given her earlier fear of him. In this interaction, the Kabuliwala also seems to be taking a fatherly role, shown by the narrator’s ability to draw parallels between how he listens to Mini and how the Kabuliwala is listening to her. However, the narrator still only sees the Kabuliwala as a fruit seller trying to make money, which is why he gives him the half-rupee.
Themes
Later, when the narrator gets back home, his wife is in the middle of 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. The narrator “rescue[s] Mini from her mother’s wrath” and brings her outside to talk. He learns that the Kabuliwala has been coming to the house almost every day, having won Mini’s regard with presents of pistachios. They have become so close that they have inside jokes and the narrator comes to enjoy seeing them laugh together.
Once again, the close relationship between the narrator and his daughter—and the distance between Mini and her mother—is shown in his decision to “rescue” her from trouble to let her talk to him. The narrator might enjoy seeing Mini and the Kabuliwala together, but it is something that he, personally, is outside of and has no part in. This seems to foreshadow the distance that will sprout up between them as they get older.
Themes
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 notes that while most Bengali girls Mini’s age would know what this means, Mini does not because her parents are “progressive people” and thus have not talked much about her future marriage. In her ignorance, Mini always responds to Rahamat by asking him if he is going to his, and he always shakes a fist at “an imaginary father-in-law” and makes a joke. Mini laughs at this, “imagin[ing] the fate of this unknown creature called a śvaśur.”
What’s interesting about both the narrator’s reluctance to talk to Mini about her future wedding (which will happen sooner than Mini likely realizes) and Rahamat’s half-joking pleas with her not to go away to her śvaśur-bāṛi, is that it betrays the fear both men have about Mini growing up (as revealed later, for Rahamat, Mini growing up signifies that his own daughter will have grown up) and leaving them. They do not want to be replaced by a father-in-law, which will inevitably happen when Mini gets married.
Themes
The narrator notes that it is “perfect autumn weather,” which makes him think about the “ancient times” when kings would “set out on their world-conquests.” Unlike these kings, the narrator has never left his hometown of Calcutta. Because of this, his “mind roves all over the world” even while he is physically “condemned” to his house, and he 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 about “High, scorched, blood-coloured, forbidding mountains” where “laden camels” and “turbaned merchants and wayfarers” can be seen traveling from one place to the next, which the narrator claims is “quite enough wandering for me.
The narrator’s unfulfilled desire to travel is reflected in the adventure book he was writing earlier in the story. Something very close to friendship is established between Rahamat and the narrator because Rahamat can satisfy the narrator’s curiosity about faraway lands, people, animals, and cultures. Additionally, Rahamat’s description of deserts and the people in them is one of the early clues that his homeland is Afghanistan, a long way away from where he’s selling fruit in India. However, for the narrator this further establishes the seemingly insurmountable differences between himself and Rahamat, preventing them from forming a meaningful connection to one another.
Themes
The narrator’s wife is very different from the narrator: she is “very easily alarmed” and is convinced that the world outside their home is dangerous and full of villains, life-threatening diseases, menacing animals, and even more menacing “white-skinned 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 a tirade about the dangers of kidnapping and children being sold into slavery in Afghanistan. The narrator admits that his wife’s fears aren’t entirely unfounded, but he sees no problem in continuing to let the Kabuliwala come to the house to talk to Mini.
On one level, the narrator understands his wife’s concerns—and they both certainly do believe they are looking out for Mini and making decisions based on what they each think is best for her—but on another level, the narrator does not want his daughter to grow up to be as afraid out the outside world as her mother is. Furthermore, he sees how happy Mini is in her friendship with Rahamat, something which he is beginning to enjoy, as well. Their disagreement about Rahamat’s visits reveals the two different ways Mini’s parents show their love for her: Mini’s mother tries to protect her from the world, while her father wants her to experience more of it.
Themes
The time eventually comes for the Kabuliwala to collect his debts and return to his home. He is busy all day during this time, but never fails to come to the narrator’s house to see Mini. Even though the sight of Rahamat in his baggy clothes in “a little frightening” to the narrator, he is always overjoyed to see how warmly Mini greets the Kabuliwala.
Despite assurances to his wife that Mini is safe with Rahamat, the narrator betrays his own fear of the new by describing the sight of Rahamat at night as “frightening.” This fear reflects some of the same trepidation he has towards actually traveling outside of Calcutta himself, which has “condemned” him to his home for his entire life. Still, he enjoys the sight of Mini’s innocence shown in her complete lack of fear of Rahamat and the danger he might pose.
Themes
One morning during this time, the narrator is up early and working in his study. He is enjoying the pleasant morning sun when 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 is holding a bloody knife.
The appearance of a bloody, handcuffed Rahamat being led by two police officers, (one of whom is holding a bloody knife), seems to confirm Mini’s mother’s worst fears about Rahamat. Still, the narrator refers to him as “our Rahamat,” showing just how much the narrator had come to accept Rahamat as a family friend.
Themes
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 to pay and so they got in a fight, during which he stabbed the neighbor. As he tells this story, Mini appears outside and goes up to the Kabuliwala just as usual. Mini asks him if he is going to his śvaśur-bāṛi, and he grins and says he is. However, in deviating from their usual script of inside jokes, the Kabuliwala fails to make Mini laugh. Gesturing to his handcuffs, he adds, “I would have killed my śvaśur, but how can I with these on?”
Despite the fact that Rahamat is being faced with the worst possible scenario (imprisonment means he will spend that much more time away from his home), his love for Mini motivates him to remain strong and protect her from the knowledge that something deeply disturbing and dark has taken place. Between the sight of his handcuffs, the bloody knife, and clothes he’s wearing, this could be the beginning of Mini’s understanding of what the term śvaśur-bāṛi really means.
Themes
The Kabuliwala is sentenced to prison for many years, and the narrator and Mini soon forget him. As she grows up, Mini’s behavior, according to the narrator, is “not very praiseworthy” and the family’s groom, Nabi, soon “replace[s] [the Kabuliwala] in her affections,” and then after that Mini begins to prefer being friends with other girls her age. She also stops visiting the narrator while he’s in his study, and the narrator admits that “I, in a sense, dropped her.”
With Rahamat’s imprisonment, all the different connections holding Mini, the narrator, and Rahamat together seem to disappear: Rahamat is no longer remembered, the narrator retreats further into himself, and Mini breaks away from him to make friends of her own. During this time, Mini grows closer to girls her age, and, presumably, her mother. This is the first indication that she will become more like her mother as she grows up and begins learning how to be a good wife before her marriage.
Themes
Years later, once again during autumn, the narrator and his wife arrange Mini’s marriage. They are terribly sad to think that their “pride and joy” will soon be leaving their household for her husband’s. It is “a most beautiful morning,” but the narrator is feeling a lot of “grief” over the “imminent separation.” The house is very 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 appearance has changed so much and he has lost his “vigour.” The Kabuliwala tells the narrator he had just been released from prison, reminding the narrator that he was “a would-be murder.”
With Mini about to leave home, the narrator is particularly emotional and sentimental, likely thinking about their former closeness and mourning the fact that their relationship will never be quite like that again. The Kabuliwala’s timely reappearance brings back old memories, but, unfortunately, this time the narrator only recognizes the negative and the image in his mind is of Rahamat in handcuffs rather than Rahamat eagerly listening to Mini’s enthusiastic chatter. Just as when Rahamat first appeared, the narrator only sees “trouble” that precludes any possibility of a connection.
Themes
The narrator nervously asks the Kabuliwala to leave because they are busy, but as he’s leaving the Kabuliwala asks to see the narrator’s “little girl.” The narrator believes that the Kabuliwala thinks Mini “was still just as she was” years before, the Kabuliwala has even brought some grapes, nuts, and raisins for her. The narrator tells him he can’t see Mini and the Kabuliwala prepares to leave again, but he asks the narrator to give Mini the treats he brought. The narrator tries to pay him, but the Kabuliwala tells him that he doesn’t want money and had come with his own daughter “in mind.”
In this interaction, the narrator seems to have dropped his former openness and adopted his fearful wife’s attitude toward outsiders. He does not want to remember Rahamat’s connection with Mini, and he wants to protect his daughter from the danger a “would-be murderer” poses because he loves her. Rahamat, who belongs to a lower social class and would therefore be expected to do as he’s told, shows just how much he still loves Mini by asking to see her even after he’s been told to leave by someone in a position of authority. For Rahamat, it is inconceivable that his friendship with Mini is at an end.
Themes
The Kabuliwala reaches into his shirt, “somewhere close to his heart,” and pulls out “a crumpled piece of paper” that has “a small handprint” made from soot on it. The Kabuliwala brings this “memento of his daughter” with him when he leaves home to sell fruit. With tears brimming in his eyes, the narrator says he “forgot then that he was an Afghan raisin-seller and I a Bengali Babu,” instead realizing that “he was as I am”: a father. The handprint on the paper, belonging to Rahamat’s “little mountain-dwelling Parvati,” reminds the narrator of his own daughter, and so he sends word for Mini to come down.
Thus far, Rahamat has been nothing but a Kabuliwala to the narrator. The revelation that Rahamat, too, has a daughter who is well-loved and deeply missed is the first step toward a real connection being established between the narrator and Rahamat. The two men are connected by their fatherhood, their deep love for their daughters, and their former closeness with Mini. Because of this, Rahamat is no longer seen as a threat, but as an equal who deserves to see Mini on her wedding day.
Themes
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 going to her śvaśur-bāṛi, but now that Mini knows what the word means, she is embarrassed. The narrator’s “heart ache[s].” Mini silently leaves the room. With a great sigh, the Kabuliwala sits on the floor, finally understanding “that his own daughter would have grown up too,” and he would have to get to know her again after his eight-year absence.
Mini’s disappointing reaction to Rahamat’s attempt to revive their old joke is due to the fact that she now knows what it means: depending on context, it can mean either a prison or a father-in-law. Mini now understands that Rahamat has been to prison, and she also now recognizes that this means she will be going away as well, but in a different way. Furthermore, Mini had always been a sort of stand-in for Parvati: they are similar ages, and they might even have had similar personalities when Rahamat first met Mini. In her reaction to the Kabuliwala’s appearance, Rahamat foresees his own daughter’s reaction and the fear that his connection with Parvati, too, will have been strained to a breaking point by his absence.
Themes
The narrator gives the Kabuliwala some money and tells him to go back to Afghanistan, and that by his “blessed reunion [with Parvati], Mini will be blessed.” The money he gives the Kabuliwala means that the wedding will no longer have “electric illuminations” or a live band playing. Although this upsets the “womenfolk,” the narrator believes “the ceremony was lit by a kinder, more gracious light.”
At this point, both Rahamat and the narrator are well aware of what they’ve lost in regards to their relationships with their daughters, and it has brought them together at last. The Kabuliwala’s final interaction with Mini helps the narrator understand that it really is time to let go, and he pays it forward by giving Rahamat the money he needs to go get “re-acquainted” with his Parvati. Although the story ends on a somber note, it also ends with a sense of hope: the narrator has finally made a real connection with Rahamat, and this shared connection and the love they have for their daughters helps give the wedding “a kinder, more gracious light.”
Themes
