contrast and compare the characters of two father in kabuliwallah
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Answers
In “Kabuliwala”, Rahamat treats Mini as his daughter. He makes friend with Mini and gives Mini gifts. At the beginning the narrator does not trust him, and he thinks Rahamat is a traveling seller and he wants to give money to Rahamat, but Rahamat rejects it. After Rahamat goes to prison the narrator and Mini forget hi m quickly. The turn point that changes the narrator’s perspective of Rahamat is that Rahamat visits his home and show him Rahamat’s daughter’s handprint on a paper. The narrator is shocked about this and he suddenly realizes why Rahamat treats Mini so nice and kindly. He finds out that though they come from different social class, they actually are same and equal as a father.
The narrator is not friendly to Rahamat until he sees Rahamat’s daughter’s handprint paper. The family of the narrator is not friendly to Rahamat from beginning to end. Why they don’t feel Rahamat’s love to Mini before he goes in prison? The narrator is a well-born Bengali gentleman, then why he says such ungracious words to Rahamat like “I told you there’s a ceremony in the house… You can’t see anyone else today.” I think it might because that as a well-born man, he actually looks down on a criminal. But after he realizes Rahamat’s sincere emotion, he does not think Rahamat is a criminal or a dry-fruit vendor from Kabul, he just thinks Rahamat is a lovely father. The nice affection of a father can weighs more than the social role.
I think that in this novel Tagore writes two symbolic father figures: the narrator and Rahamat. The narrator is not Mini’s biology father, but he loves Mini so deeply as his own daughter. When Mini asks him different strange questions, he is very patient and tries to give Mini answers, even when he is working on his novel. Rahamat is not Mini’s father, too, he is just a traveling seller, but he always talks with Mini in smile, and he gives Mini gifts and warm regard. After he comes out from the prison, the first thing he does is visit Mini. Rahamat has biology daughter, but he cannot come back to his hometown maybe because of some reasons. Therefore to some extent he treats Mini just as his biology daughter. Though these two fathers come from different class, they pay equal affection to Mini as surrogate father, and they are on the same level as a symbolic father. Tagore may indicate that a lower-class person also has sincere love, and he can be a great father, not only a great biology father but also a great surrogate father. There is always nice emotion in the world, and it is independent of money or social status.
Answer:
The kabuliwala is a hill man from Afghanistan who travels to Bengal to sell goods like shawls and raisins. As he gives away shawls, expecting the money to be returned before he departs for home, he is a very diligent man who values trust. He appears to be in need because his daughter is far away in Afghanistan and all he has to go on is a tiny charcoal imprint of her hand.
Mini's father belonged to a rather aristocratic culture and had a supposedly modern outlook. He appears to be well off as evidenced by the fact that He merely deducted a portion of his daughter's wedding costs in order to permit the kabuliwala to travel home. He does not hesitate to allow his daughter to play with the kabuliwala. Although both were fathers, they were in completely different life stages.
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