Chunilal

Chunilal is Devdas Mukherjee’s longtime friend, a neighbor in a shared lodging house in Calcutta, and a companion during periods of travel, drinking, and illness. Though the novel gives only brief glimpses of him, his repeated return at moments of vulnerability makes him an important point of contact in Devdas Mukherjee’s increasingly unsettled life: he asks about suffering, requests a favor, drinks with him, and remains part of the circle around his sickness and recovery.

Identity and Background

When Devdas Mukherjee was living in shared accommodation after leaving his uncle’s house, Chunilal occupied the adjoining room. He had been staying in the lodging house for nine years, and his prolonged residence in Calcutta was connected to his effort to pass the Bachelor of Arts examination. He had not yet succeeded, so he was still living there. The detail presents him as a long-term resident whose life, like Devdas Mukherjee’s, has not followed a settled route, though the evidence does not suggest that their circumstances or reasons for remaining in the city are the same.

Chunilal is introduced through his proximity and routine as much as through description. On one evening he is away, expected back only at dawn; no one else is in the house apart from the maid, who lights the lamps. Devdas Mukherjee shuts his door and lies down. The neighboring room thus establishes a practical closeness between the two men, but not constant companionship: Chunilal can be absent, and Devdas Mukherjee is alone with the consequences of his own decisions.

Friendship and Conversations About Suffering

Their familiarity emerges in conversation rather than in a formal account of their friendship. At one point, when Devdas Mukherjee seems preoccupied and does not answer, Chunilal notices his mood and asks whether he is unhappy. Devdas Mukherjee then sits up eagerly and asks whether Chunilal is ever upset or has ever suffered. Chunilal laughs and answers that he has not. The exchange brings their differing responses into focus: Devdas Mukherjee seeks a way to speak about distress, while Chunilal’s light answer does not open into a shared confession. The scene establishes that Devdas Mukherjee turns to him with an intimate question, even if Chunilal does not meet it with the same seriousness.

Chunilal also relies on the friendship. He asks Devdas Mukherjee to do him a favor by going once more to a place they had visited before, explaining that he has made a promise. The request is brief, but it shows Chunilal drawing on their shared history and expecting Devdas Mukherjee to accompany him again. Their bond therefore appears through reciprocal, ordinary acts: a question about how one is feeling, a remembered outing, and a request grounded in a promise.

Lahore, Drinking, and Devdas Mukherjee’s Illness

After Devdas Mukherjee has spent time wishing for the presence of Chandramukhi and thinking intermittently of Parvati Chakravarty, he travels to Lahore. Chunilal is working there, and, on hearing that his old friend has arrived, comes to meet him. The reunion renews their companionship, but it also coincides with Devdas Mukherjee tasting liquor again after a period without it. He remembers Chandramukhi’s prohibition on drinking and her love for him, yet drinks all the same. Chunilal’s presence is associated with this return to alcohol: Devdas Mukherjee usually drinks at home when Chunilal comes over, though he more commonly goes out to drink. The text connects friendship and drinking without establishing that Chunilal causes or intends Devdas Mukherjee’s self-destructive habit.

Chunilal recognizes that Devdas Mukherjee is becoming ill and urges him to go somewhere else. Devdas Mukherjee agrees distractedly. The concern is practical, but it does not prevent the decline that follows. Devdas Mukherjee disappears for two days; Dharmadas, distressed, refuses food and drink. On the third day Devdas Mukherjee returns with a fever so severe that he cannot get up, and three or four doctors attend him. Chunilal’s suggestion to leave signals that he sees the danger, while the episode makes clear how little control either friend has over the pattern of absence, drinking, and physical collapse.

Recovery and Continuing Companionship

During the illness, Devdas Mukherjee stops Dharmadas from writing to his mother in Varanasi, saying that he cannot face her in his present condition. He also remembers Chandramukhi, but does not feel like speaking about her. No news has been sent to his mother or Chandramukhi, and no one comes to visit. Chunilal’s part in this period is less directly described than Dharmadas’s, but he remains present in the surrounding sequence: after Devdas Mukherjee begins to recover, he packs his things, says goodbye to Chunilal, and returns to Allahabad with Dharmadas.

The farewell does not end their association so much as mark another departure in a life repeatedly organized around moving on. Devdas Mukherjee says that he feels much better and, some months later, proposes going somewhere new, suggesting Bombay, a place he has never seen. Chunilal is not named as a participant in that later plan; the explicit goodbye belongs to the earlier departure from Lahore. Across these scenes, Chunilal’s narrative role is that of a returning friend whose ordinary presence gives shape to Devdas Mukherjee’s unstable intervals. He is neighbor, confidant of a half-answered question, companion on a promised visit, a reason drinking sometimes happens at home, and a friend to whom Devdas Mukherjee bids farewell before moving on.