Syed Mujtaba Ali from Sylhet—in erstwhile East Bengal, now Bangladesh—a Bengali writer and traveller, spent a year and a half teaching in Kabul from 1927 to early 1929. Drawing on this experience, Mujtaba Ali later wrote Deshe Bideshe (Home and Abroad), which was published in Bengali in 1948. In his account, Ali provides a first-hand insight into critical junctures in Afghanistan's history, when King Amanullah, the sovereign king of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929, attempted to steer his country towards reform by encouraging education for girls and introducing the choice to not wear the burqa. His chronicles have now been translated into English by Nazes Afroz, a journalist who was associated with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a senior editor. In this excerpt from the translated work, In a Land Far From Home: A Bengali in Afghanistan, which will be released on 16 April 2015, Ali recalls his time in Khwajamollah, a village located about two-and-a-half miles away from Kabul, and his apprehensions about Abdur Rahman, a man he hired for his domestic chores.

I rented a house in the village of Khwajamollah, about two and a half miles away from Kabul. I acquired a servant too, along with the house.

Principal Girard, the head of the college where I was going to teach, was French. He introduced us formally, ‘His name is Abdur Rahman. He will do all your bidding—from polishing your shoes to killing your enemies.’ It meant he was my ‘Harfan-Moula’, my ‘Jack of all trades.’

… I had seen two giants in Kabul. One was this Abdur Rahman—I will talk about the other one later.

I measured him from head to toe with a tape—he was six feet four inches. His width was proportionate to his height. His arms came down to his knees and his fingers hung like a bunch of plantains. His feet were the size of a small boat. His shoulders were so broad that if he had been Amir Abdur Rahman instead of my chef, he could easily have carried the entire weight of Afghanistan on them. His mouth stretched from one ear to the other—he could have swallowed a whole banana sideways. His nose sat atop his face like a rugged mountain, and he had no forehead. His head was covered with a big turban but I had no doubt that it was so small that a baby hat would have come down to his sideburns.