The poem depicts a child fantasising that he saves his mother from dacoits.
[1][2] In the evening, when the sun is set, the child and his mother reach a barren place.
Suddenly, they hear the cry "Ha re, re re, re re"[b] as a band of dacoits attacks their caravan.
The mother shivers inside the palanquin; the palanquin-bearers hide in the bush.
The imagination now turns from this event as the poet wonders why some exciting thing like this does not actually happen in the mundane course of everyday life.