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Introduction: Leela's friend is taken from R.K. Narayan's popular short story collection " The Malgudi Days". The story expresses the issues of the interaction between different social classes, friendship and trust, prejudice and exploitation. The following autobiography is based on the story.
...........Leela's friend............
I am Sidda. I work as a servant in domestic households. I remember a memorable but a painful story in life that took place three years ago. I was in utter need of a job and hanging around a house somewhere in Kolkata. The owner of the house noticed me and it looked he needed a domestic servant too. I went in front of him and asked him if he wanted a servant. . He looked at me closely and thought for a while . He asked me about my residence and I answered him feeling a little bit nervous that I used to work in a doctor's bunglow , a little far from there. When asked , I told him the reason why I left that house . The man was still suspicious about my personality and therefore called his wife to take the decision. His wife was also a bit confused . A little girl came out of the house , looked at me and became overjoyed . She requested his father , Mr. Sivasankar, to keep me in their house and that decided everything . I was engaged finally. I was given two meals a day and four rupees a month. I had to wash clothes, tended the garden, ran errands, chopped wood and looked after Leela. Leela became very close to me day by day. Whenever I was at work , Leela called me to play with her. My
company made her very happy. She used to ask me a number of questions which I had to answer in quite a playful manner. She used to get overjoyed after hearing whatever I would say. One day she held a teaching class for me with a box filled with catalogues, illustrated books ans stumps of pencils. she tried to teach me how to write with whatever little she knew. It used to give her immense joy . After dinner I had to be ready to tell her stories of different kinds sitting beside her bed. As days went by, she became closer to me. I had to be with her nearly all of my waking hours. One day, Leela accompanied me when I was out to buy some sugar. Everything was going fine. After we returned , such an incident occured that changed everything. Leela's chain was found missing. Her mother asked her about the chain but Leela did not give her any answer. She was given a slap and came my turn . Her mother looked at me quite suspiciously ans asked me about the gold chain. At that moment I was feeling like I was a complete stranger in that house and relationships did not matter at all. Poor people were the worst persons on earth, it seemed. The incident hurt me a little. I decided to leave the work. I was preparing my mind but the thought of Leea was preventing me from taking decisions. However, I made up my mind that I had to leave no matter what. Leela's mother shouted at me and mentioned the police . I was standing stll like stupid fellow. She had to go back to the kitchen because she had left something in the oven. I got a little afraid of the consequences. It was quite natural for a poor fellow like me to be so. After Leela followed her I vanished into the darkness of the night. But I kept thinking about my little playmate Leela. I thought she was looking for me to tell her stories. I felt like I had lost my bosom friend. I did not have an idea at that moment what was happening out there. I was a bit overwhelmed with emotions at that time. Anyway, I was caught soon by the police as I was suspected to be a thief . I was brought to the police station and put into the custody. The inspector asked me about the chain several times but I could not utter a single word . After one day, I was brought to Sivasankar's house. I was standing there like animal. Leela was overjoyed to see me but her mother addressed me as as thief and called me a treacher. She asked me where I put the chain . I told them that I had not taken the chain . Leela's mother kept asking me questions after questions to which I had no answer. By seeing all these Leela became a bit angry. Leela told the policeman to leave me alone but the policeman tried to convince her that I was a thief. But Leela did not care that and affirmed that I had not stolen her chain. The policeman tried to convince her humorously that it was I who had taken her chain but she was persistent and stubborn enough to refuse everything the inspector was to say to her. Leela began to scream by all that was happening but her father made the little girl shut. I was standin there just like a fool. The inspector ordered the constable to take me to the police station again. Leela kept crying and requested the inspector to leave me and clung to my hand. I just looked at her like an animal. After some days, I came to know that the gold chain was found in the tamarind pot in the kitchen of Leela's mother . I was finally released from the police custody but they did not keep me in the their house anymore. Even though, I was found to be innocent but they stil thought me as a criminal. The difference between an upper class and a lower class marked me as a criminal even though was not.