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Kabuliwala
The Bengali term for a father-in-law’s home. When Rahamat first jokes about Mini going to a śvaśur-bāṛi, he is referring to Mini going away to live with her husband and his family after she is married.
śvaśur-bāṛi Quotes in Kabuliwala
The Kabuliwala quotes below are all either spoken by śvaśur-bāṛi or refer to śvaśur-bāṛi. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Kabuliwala
Quotes
Rahamat would say to Mini, “Little one, don’t ever go off to your śvaśur-bāṛi.’ […] She […] couldn’t clearly understand what Rahamat meant; yet to remain silent and give no reply was wholly against her nature, so she would turn the idea round and say, ‘Are you going to your śvaśur-bāṛi?’ Shaking his huge fist at an imaginary father-in-law Rahamat said, “I’ll settle him!”
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Mini came straight out with her ‘Are you going to your śvaśur-bāṛi?”
‘Yes, I’m going there now,’ said Rahamat with a smile. But when he saw that his reply had failed to amuse Mini, he brandished his handcuffed fists and said, “I would have killed my śvaśur, but how can I with these on?’
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Mini now knew the meaning of śvaśur-bāṛi; she couldn’t reply as before—she blushed at Rahamat’s question and looked away. I recalled the day when Mini and the Kabuliwala had first met. My heart ached.
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Get the entire Kabuliwala LitChart as a printable PDF.
śvaśur-bāṛi Term Timeline in Kabuliwala
The timeline below shows where the term śvaśur-bāṛi appears in Kabuliwala. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Kabuliwala
...and the Kabuliwala—whose name is Rahamat—involves her eventually having to leave to go to her śvaśur-bāṛi. The narrator notes that while most Bengali girls Mini’s age would know what this means,...
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...to the Kabuliwala just as usual. Mini asks him if he is going to his śvaśur-bāṛi, and he grins and says he is. However, in deviating from their usual script of...
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...he addresses her as “Little one” and asks her if she is going to her śvaśur-bāṛi, but now that Mini knows what the word means, she is embarrassed. The narrator’s “heart...
(full context)
