Question: In the python interpreter:
'pradeep'.lstrip('prade') gives an output of ''.
I was expecting this to return 'ep'.
Why is that assumption wrong ?

Answer: 
Martjin Pieters is right, the problem is that .lstrip() removes the characters p,r,a,d,e from pradeep.

You could possibly use the code below to do what you want to do:

```
a = 'pradeep'
b = a.split('prade')[1]

```
The function .lstrip can not satisfy with your method. You can use the example below which is given by Martijn Pieters or i can suggest you to use replace function : 

```
 example = "pradeep"
 example.replace("prade","")

```

This returns "ep".