Taylor Wells

Magee, Camille
Block 2
“The Cabuliwallah” Informative Essay
“The Cabuliwallah” is a short story, by Rabindranath Tagore, about a five-year old girl
named Mini, and her relationship with a peddler called the Cabuliwallah. The interactions
between Mini and the Cabuliwallah strongly support the theme of unlikely friendships in this
story, through the use of traversing class differences, overcoming predispositions, and besting
cultural and generational contrasts.

One way in which the author supports the theme is by establishing the social class of the
characters. For instance, Mini’s family is rather well off. When Mini’s father, the narrator, says,
“The window of my room overlooks the road,” (par. 6) it is implied that he lives in a two-story
home. Furthermore, the fact that he is an author, implies he is successful, and therefore likely
higher class. The Cabuliwallah, however, is of a much lower social class, evident by the
descriptions of his appearance: “He wore the loose soiled clothing of his people, with a tall
turban; there was a bag on his back, and he carried boxes of grapes in his hand.” Despite these
differences, however, Mini discovers the Cabuliwallah’s humanity as well as her own, allowing
them to form an unusual friendship.

Another way in which the theme is expressed is through Mini’s initial prejudgment of
the Cabuliwallah. Initially, Mini was afraid of the Cabuliwallah, evident in paragraph 7 when the
author says, “She had a blind belief that inside the bag, which the big man carried, there were
perhaps two or three other children like herself.” These lines indicate her weariness to
approach someone who, in her mind, was a monster, but she later overcomes this and
discovers that the Cabuliwallah is, in fact, just another human. She learns that he is a good
listener and that he is a kind-hearted person, and their unlikely relationship takes off from
there.

The final way in which the theme is implied in the story is through the character’s age
difference. While the text explicitly states that Mini is five years old, it only implies the
Cabuliwallah’s age. In paragraph eight, the author writes, “I made some small purchases, and a
conversation began about Abdurrahman, the Russians, the English, and the Frontier Policy.”
The fact that the Cabuliwallah discusses political matters with the narrator implies he is around
the same age or older than Mini’s father. This age gap lets the reader picture the pair of friends
and gives them just an example of how different they are. This generational difference is just a
testament to how strong their friendship is.

In summary, the author of “The Cabuliwallah” supports the theme of unlikely

friendships by stressing the pairs’ difference in social class, difference in predisposition, and
difference in experience. Their friendship, despite its oddities traverses all and shines through
as a beautiful picture of humanity in a world where humanity can sometimes be hard to find.