East Delta University
Course Code: AA 099.3
Course Title: Academic Reading and Writing
Course Instructor: Faria Shamsun
Topic: Assignment on Kabuliwala
Name: Thamidul Islam
ID: 222005802
The Essence of a Father’s Love for his Daughter
Kabuliwala, one of the most famous short stories by Rabindranath Tagore, was written in 1892. This
tale that grew around a little girl and a dried fruit seller was published in the magazine called ‘Sadhana’
as Tagore’s work. It’s a great story of pure emotion.
Mini, a 5 years old daughter of the writer, is a charming little girl who loves to chit-chat a lot with
whoever she likes. Her father sometimes listens and responses to her expressions and sometimes not.
One day they met an Afghan dried fruit seller who was called ‘Kabuliwala’. He came to Calcutta for
business. Though at first, Mini was afraid to come before the Kabuliwala, later on she became great
close to him. They used to meet almost everyday outside of their house. Each time Kabuliwala would
give Mini some raisins and nuts to cheer her up. Mini loved his company and found it amusing to be
with him. Her father was delighted to see this. But this friendship of them was at halt due to an
unfortunate incident. Regarding a debt issue with a neighboring man of the writer, there grew tension
between him and Kabuliwala which led to the stabbing of the man by Kabuliwala. So he was
imprisoned for almost eight years. After this period, one day, the little Mini grew up and she was about
to get married. Meanwhile, her father realized that, Mini was no longer emotionally attached to him
and to all of her elderly male companions like she used to be in the past. This made the writer sad. On
Mini’s wedding day, Kabuliwala arrived at her house with the same enthusiasm to meet her like good
old times. At first, her father hesitated to let him meet her and at this Kabuliwala was sadly going away.
Before going Kabuliwala gave him the gift of different dry fruits he brought for Mini. The writer
wanted to offer him some money for it but he refused and expressed that he had a daughter of his own
back in Afghanistan. He missed her and that’s why he brought these sweet and fruit gifts for Mini as he
saw his own daughter in Mini. Mini’s father emotionally realized his feeling as he also more or less felt
the same. The he called Mini from her wedding function and Kabuliwala finally met Mini after all
these time. But he realized that she didn’t felt anymore the same old attachment to him like she did in
her past. Kabuliwala was in a deep sigh to see this and left to wonder whether his daughter would
become same as Mini.
The main idea of this article is the feeling of a father for his daughter. From the moment of being born
to everyday goes on, he gets to watch his daughter grow up before him. But as time fades, sometime so
does the emotional attachment of her daughter with him. Eventually, he longs for her same old love and
company.
Five major details of this article would be:
1. Kabuliwala always brought something for Mini each time they meet.
2. Mini and Kabuliwala used to do fun with stock phrases and jokes.
3. Kabuliwala everytime somehow managed to meet Mini, even in his busy scheduling period and
time of going back to Afghanistan to meet his family.
4. Kabuliwala used to ask Mini whether she would go to her ‘in-laws’ .
5. The writer felt lost at the fact that her daughter didn’t feel close to him anymore.
And for the minor facts, I think these are worth mentioning:
1. Mini’s mother used suspect Kabuliwala as kidnapper.
2. The writer loved to know about and travel to different parts of the world.
3. Kabuliwala used to intensely listen to Mini’s all types of talkings.
4. The reason of dispute over which Kabuliwala stabbed the man was a Rampuri Shawl.
5. Mini’s new friend was Nabi, the syce.
The overall tone of the article was ‘Compassionate’. The author chose this tone because he has a deep
compassionate feelings for the feelings of Mini’s father and Kabuliwala. They both miss the loving
relationship of their daughters.
As for the fallacies, I think the first one would be Mini’s initial phobia about Kabuliwala. She thought
that there would be found several little children like her kidnapped in that big sack of Kabuliwala. But
this misconception of her had no real base or truth.
Same kind of fact I would point out that, Mini’s mother used to suspect Kabuliwala as kidnapper
without no real reason. Kabuliwala didn’t do anything wrong to be considered like this.
Paraphrasing the paragraph in the page 3 would be as follows:
It was early autumn and people like to travel around the world and so do I. Though I never stepped
outside Kolkata, I always had in mind to go out and travel all over the world and to feel to live an
autonomous, exultant life.
The story has a powerful sentiment and emotional background. We never know, when we miss the
precious love of our dear ones and It is already lost in the essence of time. Sometimes, it is a harsh
reality that we can’t deny.
