VAISHALI MAHALINGAM

A reader from Bengaluru

Rahmat usually went home around the end of January every year. He would be very busy collecting his dues at this time. He had to go from house to house, but still

he made it a point to visit Mini once a day.

There did seem to be a conspiracy between them. If he could not visit in the morning, he made his way to our house in the evening. It was true that I experienced a sudden surge of fear at the sight of the large man in his loose shalwar and kurta, standing in a dark corner of the room with his bags. But when a laughing Mini ran up to him, saying, ‘Kabuliwallah, Kabuliwallah,’ and the simple banter of old was resumed between the two friends of unequal age, my heart was filled with delight once more.