The
exposition of the story is about this poor father and his son, who live well
under the poverty line at a time when strikes were fairly common. The time
period is clearly not mentioned but I am guessing it is during the liberation
war or during one of the many events that leads up to it. The father was the
only earning member of the family who worked as a school master at a local
school and barely made enough money to lead a comfortable life let alone dream
about luxuries as obtaining a pet.
The
story is told in third person limited narrative where the father was the main
narrator. The main character’s family consisted of only himself, his wife and
their only son, Babul. Now they may be living under poverty due all this
strikes and the husband’s not-so-much earning, but the man surely was a doting
father as he tries to fulfill all his son’s wishes; sometimes even going for
extreme measures for that. For example, when he bought that chandana bird
for his son. Now, owning a pet might not seem like a big deal but under the
circumstances of the family’s poor financial situation, buying a bird and
taking care of it was quite a deal as it meant that they will now have lesser
food and money to buy other stuff. Now, it is not clearly mentioned but implied
that the father’s job is currently on hiatus because of all the strikes. So,
just like the atmosphere of the story, the mood of the characters were kind of
restless all throughout.