"A Man From Kabul"
                                                            by: Rabindranath Tagore


                                         

                    There was a man known as the Kabuliwallah. He was a man from the mountains of Afganistan 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 his daughter. Then one day he came across a young girl named Mini whom he felt resembled his daughter and he became attatched. Through the beginning of hteir relationship Kabuliwallah and Mini were the best of friends. They would sing and laugh together for hours on end and some days Kabuliwallah would bring the young girl dried fruits and nuts, but instead of using the usual price from these goods, Kabuliwallah give her not out of personal profit but out of sheer happinessof the thought that Mini would enjoy it. The most touching lines of the story that was so amazing is when Mini said..."I took them, and was gong to him, but he caught my hand and said...You are very kind , sir! Keep me in tour memory. Do not offer me money! You have a little ghirl, I too have one like her in my home. I think of her, and bring this fruit to your child, not to make profit to myself."One of the important pieces of the relationship and the story was when Mini and Kabuliwallah would sing. The special part of the song went as followed; Kabuliwallah would say: "Well, little,one, whwn are you going to your father-in-law's house? Then Mini would say: "are you going to go there?"and shaking his fist at an ihuishe policeman he would reply. " i Shall thrash my father-in-law." At that time Mini did not understand that this term father-in -law meant jail, and Kabuliwallah looked at this expression as a place of free room and board. Later on Kabuliwallah was to return to Mini one afternoon, but that morning Mini's father saw Kabuliwallah in the street covered in blood and being arrested. This is one of the saddest story I have read. I love it.