Project Work
On
Dramatization of a
Story
Entitled
Leela’s
Friend
--R.K. Narayan
Banshihari High School
(H.S.)
Banshihari, Dakshin Dinajpur
Project Work
Submitted by
Name of
the Student………………………………………
Roll................ No.…………………Section………………………………………
Registration No……………………………………….
(2017-2018)
Acknowledgement
This project has given me
golden opportunity for learning and self-development through collaborative
activities. I want to thank respected Mr. /Mrs.__________________________ to whom I owe specially for preparing this
project based on the beautiful story, entitled ‘Leela’s Friend’ written by R.K.
Narayan.
I do want to extend my
heartfelt thanks to my friends, parents and others who helped me in various
ways to make a final draft of this work and submit the same to our school.
Signature of the student
………………………………………………………………..
CERTIFICATE
This
is to certify that this Project Report entitled dramatization of R.K. Narayan’s
short story ‘Leela’s Friend’ prepared by ___________________ Class XI Roll No._______
Registration No. ______________ Year 201…-1….
submitted in partial fulfilment to class XI English Course during the academic
year 201…-1… is a bonafied
record of project work carried out under my guidance and supervision.
Signature of the Project Guide
Name: …………………………………………………………
Designation:
…Assistant teacher
Department: English
School: ……………………………………………………….
…………………………..…………………………………………….
Contents
(1)
Introduction
Page
(2)
Procedures and
Input
Page
(3)
Out of the
project
Page
(4)
Conclusion
Page
(5)
References/Bibliography Page
1.
Introduction
1.1
Project in our syllabus:
As per the new syllabus, Project work
has been included as a part of the curriculum. We have made the choice
according to the availability of works.
1.2 Objectives: The main objectives of our project work are -
(i) Finding out the structural divisions of a story.
(ii) Visualizing the story in Indian context.
(iii) Adding Indian flavor to the strong.
(iv)Taking more of the characters in Indian context.
1.3 Guiding Principle
(i) We should try to locate its
difference from Indian cultures.
(ii) Then we must try to fit in the
writing into Indian context.
(iii) We should use our daily life
experience of Indian culture and society by adding enough Indian words.
1.4 Limitations
(i) The duration for the entire project
was only ten periods.
(ii) It took a long time to select the
exact piece of writing which could be transformed.
(iii) For this particular project, group
work doesn’t help much as it demands individual imagination and not a number of
opinions.
2. Procedures and Input
For the dramatization of R.K. Narayan’s story
‘Leela’s Friend’ we worked in groups and sometimes in pairs through a
systematic process. Our teacher fixed 10 interventions for carrying out the
project. The details of our activities
are enumerated below:
First intervention: On the first day, we discussed some of
the stories. Then we minutely listened to all the stories and selected R.K.
Narayan’s ‘Leela’s Friend’.
Second intervention: On the second day, our teacher taught
us different aspects of Indian society and culture. We asked the teacher a
number of questions related to what he taught.
Third invention: On the third day, we tried to locate the
differences of the story from an Indian story.
Then we were divided into groups.
Fourth intervention: On the fourth day, we started to
change the story so that it looks Indian. Then we encountered some difficulties
with the language that were needed to be changed.
Fifth intervention: On the fifth day, we prepared the
draft of our Indian version of the story. Then we read out our manuscripts. The
teacher asked each group to make changes to the script where it was found
necessary.
Sixth intervention: On the sixth day, we selected the best
manuscript. Then we worked together for its further betterment. Another draft
was prepared.
Seventh intervention: On the seventh day, we prepared the
final manuscript .Then we read out the manuscript in the presence of our
teacher.
Eighth intervention: On the eighth day, the photocopies of
the final manuscript were distributed among the students for review.
Ninth intervention: On the ninth day, each group read out
their reviews before of the class.
Tenth intervention: Students shared their experience with
the teacher. The project report was submitted for evaluation and assessment.
3. OUTPUT OF THE PROJECT
LEELA’S FRIEND
Characters:
Leela (Sivasanker’s five-year-old daughter)
Mr. Sivasanker (Leela’s
father),
Mrs. Sivasanker (Leela’s
mother)
Sidda (servant)
Police inspector
Constable
Place:
House of Mr. Sivasanker
Scrip
[Narrator: Mr.
Sivasanker is a middle-aged man. His family comprises his wife and his five
year old daughter, Leela. He works in an office. The only problem he now faces
is the problem of appointing a good servant for household work and looking
after his daughter.]
(Mr. Sivasanker stands in the front
veranda of his house. He is brooding
over the servant problem. A young man named Sidda enters.)
Scene –(I)
Sidda
: Sir, do you want a servant?
Mr. Sivasanker
: Come in.
(Sidda opened
the gate and came in.)
Mr.
Sivasanker : (subjected him to
a scrutiny and said to himself)
Doesn’t
seem to be a bad sort ... At any rate, the
fellow
looks tidy.
Mr. Sivasanker
: Where were you before?
What’s your name.
Sidda
: In a bungalow there.(indicating a vague somewhere) in the doctor’s house.
Mr. Sivasanker
: What is his name:
Sidda
: I don’t know master. He lives near the market
Mr.
Sivasanker : Why did they send
you away?
Sidda
: (Giving the stock reply) They left the town, master.
(Mr Sivasanker was unable to make
up his mind. He called his wife. She looked at Sidda.)
His wife
:He doesn’t seem to me worse than the others we have had.
(Leela, their five-year-old
daughter, cane out, looked at Sidd)
Leela
: (Giving a cry of joy) Oh Father!
Leela
: I like him. Don’t send him away. Let us keep him in our house." And that
(Then they decided to keep Sidda as their servant. Sidda was given two meals a
day and four rupees a month, in return for which he washed clothes, tended the
garden, ran errands, chopped wood and looked after Leela.)
Leela
: (Crying) Sidda, come and play!"
( Sidda had to drop any work he
might be doing and run to her, as she stood in the front garden with a red ball
in her hand. His company made her supremely happy. She flung the ball at him
and he flung it back.)
Leela
: Now throw the ball into the sky.
(Sidda clutched the ball, closed
his eyes for a second and threw the ball up. When the ball came down again)
Sidda
: Now this has touched the moon and come. You see here a little bit of the moon
sticking.
(Leela keenly examined the ball for
traces of the moon.)
Leela
: I don’t see it."
Sidda
: You must be very quick about it because it will all evaporate and go back to
the moon. Now hurry up....
(He covered the ball tightly with
his fingers and allowed her to peep through a little gap.)
Leela
: Ah yes, I see the moon, but is the moon very wet?"
Sidda
: Certainly it is.
Leela
: What is in the sky, Sidda?"
Sidda
: God.
Leela
: If we stand on the roof and stretch our arms, can we touch the sky?
Sidda
: Not if we stand on the roof here," he said. "But if you stand on a
coconut
tree you can touch the sky.
Leela
: Have you done it?
Sidda
: Yes, many times. Whenever there is a big moon, climb a coconut tree and touch
it.
Leela
: Does the moon know you?
Sidda
: Yes, very well. Now come with me. I will show you something nice.
(They were standing near the rose
plant)
Sidda
: (Pointing) You see the moon there, don’t you?
Leela
: Yes.
Sidda
: Now come with me.
(He took her to the backyard. He
stopped near the well and pointed up. The moon was there, too. Leela clapped
her hands and screamed in wonder.)
Leela
: The moon here! It was there! How is it?
Leela
: I have asked it to follow us about.
( Leela ran in and told her mother)
Leela
: Sidda knows the moon.
(At dusk he carried her in and she
held a class for him. She had a box filled with catalogues, illustrated books
and stumps of pencils. It gave her great joy to play the teacher to Sidda. She
made him squat on the floor with a pencil between his fingers and a catalogue
in front of him. She had another pencil and a catalogue.)
Leela
: (Commanding) Now write.
(Sidda had to try and copy whatever
she wrote in the pages of her catalogue. She knew two or three letters of the
alphabet and could draw a kind of cat and crow. But none of these could Sidda
even remotely copy.)
Leela
: (Examining his effort.) Is this how I have drawn the crow? Is this how I have
drawn the B?"
(She pitied him, and redoubled her
efforts to teach him. But that good fellow, though an adept at controlling the
moon, was utterly incapable of playing the pencil. Consequently, it looked as
though Leela would keep him thee, pinned to his seat till his stiff, inflexible
wrist cracked. He sought relief.
Sidda
: I think your mother is calling you in to dinner.
(Leela would drop the pencil and
run out of the room, and the school hour would end. After dinner Leela ran to
her bed. Sidda had to be ready with a story. He sat down on the floor near the
bed and told incomparable stories: of animals in the jungle, of gods in heaven,
of magicians who could conjure up golden castles and fill them with little
princesses and their pets.... Day by day she clung closer to him. She insisted upon
having his 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.)
Scene –(II)
(One evening he went out to buy
sugar and Leela went with him. When they came home, Leela’s mother noticed that
a gold chain Leela had been wearing was missing.
Leela’s mother
: Where is your
chain?
(Leela looked into her shirt,
searched but did not find her chain)
Leela
: I don’t know.
(Her mother gave her a slap.)
Leela’s mother
: (Giving her
a slap) How many times have I told you to take it
off and put it in the box?
(Shouts) Sidda,
Sidda!
(Sidda comes in) Where is
the chain? Where have you kept it?
Sidda: I don’t know (With a dry
throat)
Mrs.Sivasanker: Bring the chain or I'll call the police,
(She
turns to go back to the kitchen for a moment because she has left something the
oven)
Leela : Give me some sugar, Mother,
I am hungry (Sidda exits)
Mrs. Sidda, Sidda Sivasnker (Sidda has already
vanished into thin air)
SCENE 3
[Narrator: Mr. Sivasanker comes
home an hour later. He learns everything from his wife, He grows very excited
over all this .So he goes to the police station and lodges a complaint. Once
again it is bed time. After meal Leela refuses to go to bed.]
Leela: I won't sleep unless Sidda comes and tells me
stories...Idon't like you, Leela Mother.You are always abusing and worrying
Sidda.Why are you so rough?
Mother: But he has taken away your
chain...
Leela: Let him. It doesn't matter. Tell me a story.
Mother: Sleep, sleep.
Leela: Tell me a story, Mother.
Mother: It is God's mercy that the
villain has not killed the child for the chain.....
(Turning to Leela). Sleep, Leela,
Sleep,
Leela : Can't you tell the story of
the elephant?
Mother: No
(Leela makes a noise of
deprecation)
Leela : Why should not Sidda sit in our chair,
Mother?
(Mother does not answer the
question. Silence for a moment)
Leela: Sidda is gone because he wasn't allowed to
sleep inside the house like us. Why should he always be made to sleep outside
the house, Mother? I think he is angry with us, Mother
(She turns on her side, falling asleep)
Mr. Sivasanker: (Mr. Sivasanker enters) What a risk we took in engaging that fellow.
It seems he is an old criminal. He has been in jail half a dozen times for
stealing jewellery from children. From the description I gave, the inspector
was able to identify him in a moment.
Mrs. Sivasanker: Where is he now?
Mr. Sivasanker :. The police know his haunts.
They will pick him up very soon, don't worry. The inspector was furious that I
didn’t consult him before employing him...
SCENE 4
[Narrator: Four days later. Sidda is
now in the grip of the police. Sivasanker is at home from office hours. A
police inspector and a constable bring in Sidda. Sidda stands with bowed head.
Seeing Sidda, Leela is overjoyed
Leela: (running towards Sidda) Sidda! Sidda!
Inspector: (stooping her) Don't go near him.
Leela: Why not?
Inspector: He is a thief. He has taken away your gold
chain.
Leela: Let him. I will have a new
chain.
( All of them laugh)
Mr.Sivasanker: Why have you taken
the chain? Where is the chain? Tell me what you have done with the chain.
Mrs Sivasanker: Sidda, so
ungrateful you are! You are a devil.
(Tears roll down Sidda's cheek)
Sidda: I have not taken it.
(Very feebly, looking
at the ground)
Mrs. sivasanker: Why did you run away without telling us?
(There is no
answer. Laela's face becomes red.)
Leela: Oh, policeman, leave him alone. I want to play
with him.
Inspector: My dear child, he is a thief.
Leela: (Haughtily) Let him be...
Inspector (to Sidda): What a devil you must be steal a thing from
such an innocent child! Even now
it is not too late. Return it. I will let you off, provided you promise not to
do such a thing again.
Mr. & Mrs Sivasanker: (agreeably) Return it now. No harm will be
done to you.
Leela: (feeling disgusted with the
whole business)
Leave him alone, he hasn't taken
the chain.
Inspector: (Humorously) You are not
at all a reliable prosecution witness, my child!
Leela: (screams) He hasn't taken it!
Mr. Sivasanker: Baby, if you don't behave, I will be very
angry with you.
Inspector: (to the constable) Take him to the station. I
think I will have to sit with him tonight.
(The constable takes Sidda by
the hand and returns to go. Leela runs behind them.)
Leela: (crying) Don't take him. Leave him here.
(She
clings to Sidda's hand. He looks at her mutely, like an animal. Mr. Sivasanker
carries Leela back
into the house. Leela is in tears.)
SCENE 5
Narrator: Everyday when Mr.
Sivasanker comes home he is asked by his wife about the jewel. Leela enquires
of Sidda.]
Sivasanker: Any news of the chain?
Leela: Where is Sidda?
Mr. Sivasanker: They still have him
in the lockup, though he is very stubborn and won't say anything about it.
Mother: (with a shiver) What a
rough fellow he must be!
Mr. Sivasanker: Oh, these fellows who have
been in jail once or twice lose all fear. Nothing can make them confess.
(Narrator : A few days later,
putting her hand into the tamarind pot in the kitchen, Leela's Mother picks up
the chain. She takes it to the tap and washes off the coating of tamarind on
it. It is unmistakably Leela's chain. She goes to Leela to show the chain to
her.)
Mother: Look at the chain.
Leela: It's mine, Give it here, I want
to wear the chain.
Mother: How did it get into the
tamarind pot?
Leela: Somehow,
Mother: Did you put it in?
Leela: Yes, mother,
Mother:
When?
Leela: Long ago, the other day.
Mother: Why didn't you say so before?
Leela: I
don't know.Leela
SCENE 6
[Narrator: At night when Mr.
Sivasanker comes back, his wife tells him how the chain was discovered.
Mr. Sivasanker: The child must not have any chain hereafter. Didn’t
tell you that I saw her carrying it in her hand once or twice? She must have
dropped it into the pot sometime And all this bother on account of her.
Mrs.Sivasanker: What about Sidda?
Mr. Sivasanker: I will tell the
inspector tomorrow… in any case, we couldn't have kept a criminal like him in
the house.
4. Conclusion
4.1 Present Value
The project we undertook was completed within
scheduled time limit.
After completing the project we
have learnt the following
(i) How to transform a story rich
in dramatic elements into a successful play.
(ii) How to make the play lively by
adding suitable dialogues.
(iii) The utility of stage
performance in learning the target language.
(iv) How to enjoy group work.
(v) How to develop essential skills
such as collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.
(vi) How to use language in context
(vii) The importance of tone and
modulation in speech.
(viii) The importance of body
language or gesture in communication.
(ix) Importance of the setting,
dialogue, music, and props in a drama
(x) How to develop fourskills
inahappy,non-threateningenvironment.
4.2 Future
The product of this particular
project will help others in the following Way
(i) They will get a ready script to be
enacted.
(ii) They will be able to modify
the script to make it more lively.
(iii) They can form an idea about
dramatization of a story
(iv) They will be encouraged to take up other
stories for dramatization
(v) They will be ableto use the
script in learning language effectively.
5 References
Boulton, Marjorie: The Anatomy of Drama.Indian
Reprint, Kalyani Publishers, 1985.
Hornby, As oword Advanced Learner's
Dictionary.Eighth Edition, OUP, 2010.
National Curriculum
Framework.NCERT, 2005.
O'Shea, Catherine and Egan,
Margaret: A Primer of Drama Techniques for Teaching Literature.National Council
of Teachers of English, 1978.
Naganathan, Ramanujam: Project Work
to promote English Language Learning.British Council, 2011.
Mindscapes WBCHSE.
A Text Book of English (B), WBCHSE.
