​The Kabuliwala

Kabuliwala is a Bengali short story written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1892, during Tagore's "Sadhana" period from 1891 to 1895. The story is about a fruitseller, a Pathan from Kabul, Afghanistan, who visits Calcutta, India each year to sell dry fruits.

The main theme of this story is filial affection—the deep love that fathers have for their children. We encounter three examples of filial affection in the story—the narrator and his daughter Mini; the Kabuliwala "Rahmat" and his daughter in Afghanistan; and the Rahmat "Kabuliwala" and Mini. In this story, Rahmat comes to India every year to sell dry fruits and meet Mini. He encountered a physical confrontation with a person while collecting debts, which led him to end up in jail. After several years, he was pardoned and was released from jail—he returned to meet Mini at her house, she had grown up and could not recognize him due to circumstances.​

About the Author

Rabindranath Tagore FRAS was an Indian polymath—poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.​