Summary

The short story “Chokra” by Numair A. Choudhury begins with a six-year-old boy claiming that his sister, Munmun, was born in a kerosene drum. He remembers going with his mother to a hut, where a man called Saba Mia keeps hundreds of kerosene drums. Munmun was kept in one of the drums for a while when she was three years old. 

Two years later, one rainy day, the narrator is pushing his sister’s trolley on the streets and begging. They are threatened by a chokidar, and people chase them away, sometimes throwing things at them. A woman opens her door and invites the two children in. She finds out that Munmun cannot talk but that she can understand everything. The woman washes their clothes, gives them food, and allows them to sleep in the house.

While Munmun is sleeping, the woman asks the narrator about her. The narrator confesses that Munmun was taken away when he was little, to be crippled so that they would make more money while begging. The narrator knows that Munmun will probably cry after they leave the woman’s house, as she misses having a mother. The woman cries herself to sleep, but the narrator knows her tears will not help them. 

In the morning, the woman wakes the children up, as her husband will soon return home from the factory. The narrator pushes the trolley outside, where he feels hopeful after looking at the sun and at the dry streets.