Important Questions Answers from Leela’s Friend by R.K Narayan
Today we are going to have some important questions answers from the the story Leela’s Friend by R.K. Narayan. These are the very important questions answers that will help to analyse the story Leela’s Friend.
Descriptive Questions Answers from Leela’s Friend
1) What is the central theme of the story, “Leela’s Friend”?
R.K.Narayan’s short story “Leela’s Friend” taken from his noted “Malgudi Days” is a simple tale of Indian middle class family. In the story, we have the variety of themes like injustice, class conflict, betrayal of trust, exploitation, innocence and simplicity of the central character. It is very clear that the story mainly hinges on the socio-economic conflict of the then society.
But the author has woven a sweet and naughty relationship between Leela, a five years old daughter and Sidda, the servant of their house. But Sidda is wrongly accused of stealing the gold chain despite of Leela’s innocence plea. The story thematically reminds us of Rabindranath’s Kabuliwala.
Thus, the story brings forth social hierarchy. Sidda becomes the victim of the class conflict. Poverty leaves a permanent wound in Sidda’s life. Though he tries to overcome his dark past, he is not ultimately accepted by the society. Here, R.K.Narayan throws his voice through the innocent character of Leela who has raised her voice against the discrimination of the society.
2) “It gave her great joy to play the teacher to Sidda” — Describe how did Leela play the role of a teacher to Sidda.
Ans:- In “Leela’s Friend”, Leela, five years old daughter of Mr. Sivasankar got great joy to play the teacher to Sidda. The small girl Leela had an opportunity to overrule Sidda when she became the teacher. At dusk, she held a class for him with 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 catalogue in front of him. She was ready with another pencil and a catalogue and directed Sidda to write whatever she wrote in the pages of catalogue.
Leela knew only two or three letters of the alphabet and could draw a kind of cat and crow. But Sidda who was an adept at controlling the moon could not even remotely copy none of these. To get relief, Sidda would say that her mother was calling her for dinner.
Leela would run out of the room and thus the school hour would end.
3) What message is conveyed by Mr. Sivasankar’s final words in the story, “…..in any case, we couldn’t have kept a criminal like him in the house.”
Ans:- Through the extract, Mr. Sivasankar expresses his conviction about Sidda as a criminal like him is dangerous to keep in the house. Sidda was accused of stealing the gold chain of Leela and was arrested by the police. Despite the innocence plea of Leela, Sidda was taken away to the police station.
But when the gold chain was found it was expected that the misunderstanding would subside and the story would have a happy ending. Unfortunately, Mr. Sivasankar did not pay any morality towards Sidda and marked him as a criminal and treacherous person.
Through this line R.K.Narayan also shows the indifference of the upper class of the society towards the lower class whose voice is never heard. We can say if anything the two people who will suffer the most in the story are Sidda and Leela who has lost a true friend.
4) “He looked at her mutely, like an animal.” — Who looked at whom? Explain the situation and the character of the person spoken to in this context.
Ans:- In the short story “Leela’s Friend” by R.K.Narayan, Sidda, the domestic servant of the Sivasankar household looked at Leela, the five years old daughter of his master.
Sidda was arrested for stealing Leela’s gold chain. When he was brought into the house of Mr. Sivasankar by a police inspector and a constable, Leela was overjoyed to see her playmate. Leela ran down the stairs to meet him, but the inspector forbade her to approach towards him as Sidda was marked as a thief.
Leela’s parents too accused him of treachery. Sidda feebly denied the charge of pilferage. The fact which is very noticeable is that Narayan has explored the theme of innocence through the character of Leela who insisted the policemen to release Sidda and let him play with her.
But the fact that Sidda was not believed by Leela’s parents and the policemen. It suggests that social order is playing an important part of its own. Sidda is at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to social order and their voice is never heard.
He could not do anything but to accept his guilt mutely like an animal because the privilege which the upper class have may not be afforded to Sidda. So, he remains voiceless throughout, even before Leela.
5) Describe the moon episode as told by Sidda in the story “Leela’s Friend”.
Ans:- The moon episode as made by Sidda was very interesting and innovative that enthralled little Leela. Sidda, in his attempt to be more friendly and entertain Leela, had to inter weave a few imaginative stories and one of them was related to the moon.
He told Leela that he knew the moon and touched it. Leela and Sidda played with a red ball which Sidda threw up in the sky. When the ball came down, Sidda told her that the ball had touched the moon. He also told her that he had touched the moon several times from the top of coconut tree.
To prove that he knew the moon, Sidda showed Leela the moon near the rose plant and then brought her near the well to show the moon there in the sky. Sidda told her that he had asked the moon to follow him. Thus, the innocent Leela believed Sidda whose intention was to please little Leela by weaving the story from his imaginative faculty.
6) Sketch the character of Sidda in brief in the story “Leela’s Friend”.
Ans: Sidda who belonged to poor class of the society, worked as domestic servant in different households. He was employed as a servant in Mr. Sivasanker’s house. He was polite and obedient to his master. Amid all the household works, his prime job was to look after Leela, the five years old daughter of Mr. Sivasanker. He was always at the back and call of Leela.
His company made Leela supremely happy. He became the only playmate to Leela. Leela trusted him so much that she believed the stories of Sidda related to moon. But he became the victim of unjust punishment. He was accused of stealing the gold chain from Leela. Thus, through the character of Sidda, R. K. Narayan brings forth the social hierarchy. Sidda becomes the victim of class conflict. Poverty leaves a permanent wound in Sidda’s life.
Though he tries to overcome his dark past but ultimately he is not accepted by the society. He remains a character whose voice is never heard and accepted.
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