Why did Ravi feel relieved when he had Raghu throw his was hiding
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Answer:
This story explores the range of feelings that a young boy (Ravi) has during the course of an afternoon/evening. He feels trapped when his mother keeps him indoors; he feels ‘released’ when he is allowed out to play; he feels ‘relief and jubilation’ at not being chosen to be ‘it’; he feels ‘panic’ as Raghu approaches his hiding place and ‘fear’ as he desperately looks for a better place to hide; he feels small as he is unable to reach the garage key; he feels ‘delight’ and ‘self-congratulation’ when he avoids capture by hiding in the shed. However, as he takes in his surroundings he feels a sense of unease which is intensified by a spider that tickles the back of his neck. After some considerable time in the shed Ravi thinks of the triumph he will experience as the winner of the game and he visualises himself as a hero: ‘such laurels’. His run for victory, however, is far from heroic as he falls over and hurts himself because his legs have gone numb. At this point he feels ‘rage’, ‘pity’ and embarrassment at ‘the disgrace of it all’. When he charges the other children and bawls: ‘I won’ he is forced to realise that the other children have moved on and not even noticed his absence: ‘All this time no one had remembered Ravi’. His misery is compounded at this point and he is left lying on the damp grass with: ‘a terrible sense of his insignificance.