In the short story, "The Man From Kabul- by Rabindranath Tagore, there was a man known as the Kabuliwallah. He was a man from the mountains of Afghanistan, who made his living as a peddler of fruits and nuts. He had left his family behind to make his way through life, and during this time he began longing to see his daughter. Then one day he came across a young girl named Mini whom he felt resembled his daughter and he became attached.
Through the beginning of their relationship the Kabuliwallah and Mini were the best of friends. They would sing and laugh together for hours on end and some days the Kabuliwallah would bring the young girl dried fruits and nuts, but instead of paying the usual price for these goods the Kabuliwallah would give them to the young girl not out of personal profit but out of sheer happiness of the thought that Mini would enjoy them. One of the important pieces of the relationship and the story was when Mini and the Kabuliwallah would sing. The special part of the song went as followed; the Kabuliwallah would say: "Well, little one, and when are you going to your father-in-law's house?- then Mini would say: " are you going there?- and shaking his fist at an invisible policemen he would reply: "I shall thrash my father-in-law."" At the time Mini did not understand that this term father-in-law meant jail, and as for the Kabuliwallah he looked at this expression as a place of free room and board. Later on the Kabuliwallah was to turn return to Mini one afternoon, but that morning Mini's father saw the Kabuliwallah in the street covered in blood and being arrested. Then her father had come to learn later of an assault of a man over a business dispute committed by the Kabuliwallah.
Years later the Kabuliwallah returned at the time of Mini's wedding, but he had changed after jail. His hair was short he seemed aged and he carried no bag of goods at his side. Also Mini had changed a great deal over the years; she had become a woman and was on her way to marriage.
