Literature Notes: The Cabuliwallah and Preliminary Inspection

Vocabulary flashcards covering characters, settings, authors, and key plot elements from Rabindranath Tagore's 'The Cabuliwallah' and Raymond Pillai's 'Preliminary Inspection'.

Rabindranath Tagore

The author of the short story The Cabuliwallah.

The Cabuliwallah

A short story centered on the theme of relationships, depicting a special friendship between a five-year-old Bengali girl named Mini and an Afghan peddler named Rahmun.

Mini

A five-year-old Bengali girl living in Calcutta who overcomes her initial fear to form a close friendship with Rahmun, but eventually grows up and forgets him.

Rahmun (Abdurrahman)

A street peddler from Kabul who sells grapes, nuts, and raisins in Calcutta, is imprisoned for assault, and later realizes his own daughter in Afghanistan must have grown up just like Mini.

Calcutta (The Cabuliwallah)

The setting of The Cabuliwallah in the early 1900's, predominantly inhabited by Bengalis who are typically wary of foreign street peddlers.

Raymond Pillai

The author of the short story Preliminary Inspection.

Preliminary Inspection

A short story under the theme of relationships that recounts a prospective son-in-law's first meeting with his intended bride's parents on Diwali night.

Gopal

A bachelor and local social and welfare officer who intends to marry Savitri, feels nervous meeting her family, and cannot speak his mother tongue fluently.

Savitri

The woman Gopal intends to marry; she invites him to her house on Diwali night and later reveals that her parents had accepted him all along.

Appa

Savitri's father/parent who makes Gopal nervous by questioning the appointment of a bachelor as a social and welfare officer and pointing out Gopal's inability to speak his mother tongue.

Vanua Levu

The cane farming community that serves as the setting for Preliminary Inspection, reflecting a period of transition for younger generations.

Lajonia road junction

The location near which Savitri's family home—described as a 'rambling affair'—is situated in Vanua Levu.

Diwali night

The festive occasion on which Savitri invites Gopal to her family's house to meet her parents.