Sidda’s company makes Leela supremely happy – Discuss
Q. Sidda’s company makes Leela supremely happy – Discuss
Answer: R.K. Narayan's short story, Leela's Friend is taken from the well-known short story collection, the Malgudi Days. The story probes the issues of the collaboration between various social classes, kinship and trust, bias and abuse.
In the short story, Leela's Friend, we have Sidda and Leela as the constant companions to each other. Leela and Sidda played with a red ball in the garden. Leela would throw the ball at him. Sidda would throw it back to Leela. She also used to tell him to throw the ball upwards. That ball would come down. Sidda used to say to look for the moon particle on the ball. Leela watched it with a keen interest. She felt as if he had discovered a piece of the moon on the ball. Then they would go to the rose garden. Sidda used to tell Leela to look at the sky.
Later he would take her to a well at the back of the house. Sidda used to tell Leela that the moon was moving at his command. Leela used to go from one place to another. She saw the moon going with them. She would have been overwhelmed with joy. She clapped her hands excitedly. She believed that Sidda was the lord of the moon. She used to enjoy every moment with Sidda. She would have been very happy with Sidda’s company.
At bedtime, Sidda used to tell all the wonderful stories to Leela. In Sidda's story, her sleep would come to her eyes. The story was about wild animals, gods, powerful magicians, and wonderful young princesses. Leela used to see them in her imagination. A huge new world would unfold before her. It stirred her mind. She was obsessed with sweetness. She would have been very happy.
In the evening, the school hour started with an eagerness of Leela. Leela was a teacher and Sidda was her devoted student. She tried to teach him how to read. She had a box. It contained notebooks, illustrated drawing books and some broken pieces of pencils. She used to make Sidda squat in front of her. Sidda was given a notebook and a pencil. Then she would order him to write what she wrote on the notebook.
Honestly, Leela knew how to write two or three letters and could draw something like a cat or a crow. Sidda used to try to imitate Leela. But he would have failed miserably. Leela would pity him but would not give up trying. She taught him with new enthusiasm. Sidda had to endure the oppression of her love face to face. Thus, the routine would continue day by day and the more days passed the more Leela became supremely happy with Sidda’s companion.
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