“I have asked it to follow us about”—Who is the speaker? What is ‘it’? Bring out the context.

 

Answer:   Here in the story Leela’s Friend by R. K. Narayan, Sidda, the newly appointed servant in Leela’s house is the speaker. 

Here ‘it’ refers to the moon. 

Once while playing, Leela asked Sidda if he knew the moon. Sidda replied that he knew the moon very well. To prove it, he showed e moon to Leela from standing in the front yard. Then he carried Leela to the backyard and showed the moon again standing near the well. Leela wondered how the same moon appeared at two places. Then Sidda said that he had asked the moon to follow them from previous place to backyard. 

“Don’t send him away. Let us keep him in our house”—Who said this and to whom? About whom had this remark been made? Why did the speaker say so?

 Here in the story Leela’s Friend by R. K. Narayan, Leela, five-year old daughter of Sivasanker said this to her father Sivasanker.

 This remark had been made about Sidda who came to Sivasanker’s house to seek servant’s job.

 When both Leela’s mother and father were unable to make up mind whether to keep Sidda in their house as servant or not, suddenly their daughter Leela came on the spot and grew excited to see Sidda. She insisted on keeping him as she could play with her round the clock. Besides Leela liked Sidda very much. 

Character of Leela.

Answer:  In the short story Leela’s Friend by R. K. Narayan, Leela was one of the important characters. She was Sivasanker’s five-year old daughter. She always likes to play and listen stories. She insisted on keeping Sidda in their house as a servant only fulfill the vacant place of the playmate. Through out the day, even in evening time she liked to play with Sidda. Her mind always went to the world of imagination when she listened to Sidda’s story of magician, gods in heaven, animal in jungle. She was very innocent too. She believed that Sidda could touch the moon and moon listened to Sidda’s order. She questioned on her mother’s decision to force Sidda sleep outside, not to permit him to sit on their chair. She did so as her innocent mind did not know the class division. She had no care for the expensive worldly materials as she remained indifferent to her missing chain. It might be said that Sidda, a thief by profession got changed getting in touch of innocent Leela.