LEELA'S FRIEND

LEELA’S FRIEND

R. K. NARAYAN

1. a) When did Mr. Sivasanker subject Sidda to a scrutiny and what observation did he make? b) What did Sivasanker inquire of Sidda and what did Sidda reply? c) Why did Sivasanker call his wife and what observation did she make? d) “ and that decided it” – What was decided and how? e) On what conditions Sidda was appointed?

a)         Sidda was hanging about the gate when Mr. Sivasanker was standing in the front veranda of his house. Sivasanker was brooding over the servant problem. As Sidda told him that he was looking for a job of a servant, Sivasanker asked him to come inside the gate and subjected him to a scrutiny.

           

To Mr. Sivasanker, Sidda didn’t seem to be a bad sort at any rate and he also looked tidy.

b)         Sivasanker asked Sidda where he had been before, what his master’s name was and why he left the job. Sidda replied that he had worked in a bungalow. It was a doctor’s house near the market. He did not know his master’s name. Sidda had to leave the job because they had left the town.

c)         Sivasanker couldn’t make out by his own if it would be prudent to employ the boy as a servant. So he called his wife.

            To Sivasanker’s wife, Sidda didn’t seem to be any worse than the others they had had before.

d)         Mr. Svasanker and his wife had a little hesitation to decide over the employment of Sidda. At that moment, Leela, their five year old daughter came out. She looked at Sidda, liked him and insisted his parents to keep him in their house. This made her parents resolve to employ Sidda as a servant.

e)         Sidda was given two meals a day and four rupees a month. In return he washed clothes, tended the garden, ran errands, chopped wood and looked after Leela.

2. a) When did Sidda drop his work in order to accompany Leela? b) What made Leela supremely happy? c) How did they play with the ball? d) When and how did Sidda throw the ball into the sky? d) “You must be quick about it” – Why did Sidda ask Leela to be quick? f) “But is the moon very wet?” – When did Leela make such observation? g) What did Sidda ask Leela about the sky? h) “ I have asked it to follow us about” – When did Sidda say this and What did Leela do after that?

a)         Leela stood in the front garden with a red ball in her hand and as she called Sidda and asked him to play, Sidda had to drop any work he might be doing and run to her.

b)         Sidda’s company made Leela supremely happy.

c)         Leela flung the ball at Sidda and he flung it bact to her.

d)         Leela asked Sidda to throw the ball into the sky. Sidda clutched the ball, closed his eyes for a second and then threw the ball up.

e)         Sidda threw the ball up and as it came down, he said that it had touched the moon and that Leela could see a little bit of the moon sticking to it. Leela curiously examined the ball for traces of the moon but nothing could she find. Sidda then suggested her to be quick about it, otherwise it would all evaporate and go back to the moon.

f)         Sidda covered the ball tightly with his fingers and through a little gap between the fingers he allowed Leela to peep in and find the traces of the moon. This time Leela could find something and asked Sidda if the moon was very wet. Sidda replied that certainly it was wet.

g)         Leela asked Sidda what is there in the sky. Sidda replied that there is God there. Leela then wondered if they standing on the roof and stretching there arms could touch the sky. Sidda said that it could not be done from the roof, rather, standing on a coconut tree one could touch the sky. Leela inquired if he had ever done it. Sidda said he had done it many times. Whenever there was a big moon, he would climb a coconut tree and touch it.

h)         Leela was amazed and asked Sidda if he knew the moon. Sidda readily agreed and said that he was going to show her something nice. They were standing near the rose plant from where he pointed out the moon and then took Leela to the backyard and again pointed up. The moon was there, too. Leela was amazed. She clapped her hands and screamed in wonder how the moon had moved along. Sidda said that he had asked the moon to follow them about. To her utter surprise Leela ran into the house to tell her mother that Sidda knew the moon.

3. a) “At dusk he carried her in” – Who carried whom, when and from where? b) What gave Leela a great joy? c) How did Leela make her arrangements to play the teacher to Sidda? d) What did Sidda have to try and copy? e) What things did Leela know to write and draw? f) Why did Leela pity him and redouble her effort? g) What was Sidda adept at and what was he incapable of?  h) Why did Sidda seek relief and how did he finally manage it?

a)         At dusk Sidda carried Leela into the house from the front garden.

b)         It gave Leela a great joy to play the teracher to Sidda.         

c)         In the evening Leela held a class for Sidda. She had a box filled with catalogues, illustrated books and stumps of pencils. She made him squat on the floor with a pencil between his fingers and a catalogue in front of him. She herself took another catalogue and a pencil and then commanded Sidda to write and copy whatever she wrote in her pages.

d)         Sidda had to try and copy whatever Leela wrote in the pages of her catalogue.

e)         Leela knew two or three letters of the alphabet and could draw a kind of cat or a crow.

f)         Sidda could not even remotely copy what Leela had shown him. She however examined his efforts, scolded him and pitied him but did not give up, instead, she redoubled her efforts to teach him.

g)         Sidda was adept at controlling the moon but was utterly incapable of plying the pencil.

h)         Leela kept on teaching Sidda till his stiff, inflexible wrist almost cracked. He then sought relief by saying that her mother was calling her to dinner. Leela would drop the pencil and run out of the room and thus the school hour would end.

4. a) What did Sidda have to be ready with after dinner? b) What stories did he tell Leela? c) How did Leela cling closer to Sidda day by day?

a)         After dinner when Leela ran to her bed, Sidda had to be ready with a story. He sat down on the floor near the bed and told her incomparable stories.

b)         Sidda told her incomparable stories of animals in the jungle, of gods in heaven and of magicians who could conjure up golden castles and fill them with little princesses and their pets.

c)         Day by day Leela clung closer to Sidda. She liked her company all her waking hours. She was at his side when he was working in the garden or chopping wood and accompanied him when he was sent on errands.

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