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Class 12 English Lost Spring Summary and Questions
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anees Jung is the author of several books. She began her career as a writer and an editor of Youth Times and has been a columnist for many major newspapers in India as well as abroad. She inherits her literary tradition from her parents who were renowned scholars and poets. In ‘Lost Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood’ she exposes a national shame regarding poverty, child labour and children wasting their childhood in petty jobs to earn money. Anees’ writing style follows journalistic approach which is factual, straight forward and pertinent. The following is an excerpt taken from her book, ‘Lost Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood’.
SUMMARY
“Sometimes I find a Rupee in the garbage” Saheb is a ragpicker, searching for gold in garbage. His family is from Bangladesh which they left long ago. The author saw Saheb digging and picking garbage for his livelihood every day. One day the author suggested him to go to school, to which he replies that there is no school nearby. She jokingly told him that she would open a school. After some time the little boy walked up to her to ask about the school about which the author felt embarrassed as this promise was also like many other promises made to poor children that remain unfulfilled.
One day, the author asked the little boy’s name and found out that his name was Saheb-e-Alam which meant lord of the universe, ironically. There were many ragpickers and most of them didn’t have chappals. Anees was told that going barefoot was a way to follow tradition which she realises as an excuse to poverty. The author is reminded of a man who as a young boy prayed for a pair of shoes. Thirty years later the author revisits that place and saw a new priest’s home and a boy there, wearing socks and shoes. But the author was still sad thinking about the ragpickers who were still shoeless.
The ragpickers lived on the outskirts of Delhi at Seemapuri. They lived in small mud structures with roof of tin and tarpaulin. They were deprived of basic amenities. Food was the most important thing for them so that they don’t have to sleep on empty stomach. Saheb told the author that sometimes he found a ten rupee note or a coin in the garbage and that was his gold.
One winter morning Anees noticed Saheb with tennis shoes. Though they were mismatched with his faded clothes, they were very dear to him. One morning the author noticed Saheb with a steel container, going to a milk booth. He had got a job at a tea-stall with a pay of eight hundred rupees plus meals. But the author realises that he no longer looked carefree because he had been burdened by the responsibility of a job.
“I want to drive a car”
The author then tells the readers about Mukesh a young boy who worked in a (bangle) glass factory in Firozabad. Mukesh belonged to a family which is engaged in bangle-making, like many other families. The author comments on the ignorance of the people there who involve their children in glass industry at such a young age. Mukesh happily agrees to take the author to his home which is being rebuilt.
They enter a half build shack. Food was being cooked on a firewood stove by a young woman. She was Mukesh’s elder brother’s wife, the bahu of the family. When the older man entered the house she pulled her veil close to her face. The older man was a bangle maker. He worked hard all his life first as a tailor and then as a bangle maker. He could not
give his children education but taught them the art of bangle making.
Mukesh’s grandmother believes in destiny, she also believes that bangle making is a God given lineage. Young boys and girls work in dark places and become prone to lose their eye sight at an early age. Savita is a young girl dressed in pink. She works with her parents and even in dark her hands move fast. She does not realise the significance of bangles in the life of Indian women at this young age. But she will realise it once she is married. The situation is ironical because all girl child labourers will eventually become brides and wear those bangles. The old lady sitting next to her has lost her eyesight and complains of poverty. They had enough to eat despite all the hardwork.
A common complaint of all families involved in bangle-making is lack of money for food. Nothing has changed since a long time. The author gives suggestions to avoid the circle of middlemen. But the people there tells her that if they get organised they would be beaten up by police and put in jail. These poor people have no leader and they are caught in the ruthless cycle of poverty, injustice and greed.
The author feels they are present two distinct worlds. One is people caught in the clutches of poverty and burdened by the stigma of caste. Secondly, these people are also caught in the vicious circle of middlemen, policemen, and politicians. It is because of such people that the children are weighed down with responsibilities at such a tender age. The children accept it as naturally as their parents did. No one dares to deviate. The author sees the daring attitude in Mukesh and hopes he will fulfil his dream one day. Mukesh insists on becoming a motor mechanic. He is willing to walk long way to the garage to give wings to his dreams. At the same time, Mukesh is firmly rooted to the ground. He does not dream of flying aeroplanes. The author feels that may be this is due to the fact that few planes fly over Firozabad.
CBSE Class 12 English Lost Spring Summary Important Questions and Answers
Question 1. How is Mukesh different from the other bangle makers of Firozabad?
Ans. Mukesh is different from other bangle makers of Firozabad because he dares to dream. He refuses to carry on the family tradition of bangle making. Instead, he insists on being his own master. He wants to become a motor mechanic and is focussed and determined to achieve it.
Question 2. What job did Saheb take up? Was he happy?
Ans. Saheb took up a job at a tea-stall, which paid him 800 rupees and all his meals. No, he was not happy with the job because his ‘carefree’ days were over, he now had a master to work under; he was no longer his own master.
Question 3. In what sense is garbage gold to the ragpickers?
Ans. Garbage is like gold to the ragpickers in the sense that it is a means of sustenance for them. Garbage gives them their daily bread and provides a roof over their heads.
Question 4. Why did Saheb’s parents leave Dhaka and migrate to India?
Ans. Saheb’s parents left Dhaka because repeated floods swept away their fields and homes leaving them on the verge of starvation. This led to their migration to India, where they hoped to find better living conditions and livelihood opportunities.
Question 5. What is Mukesh’s dream? Do you think he will be able to fulfil his dream? Why not? Why?
Ans. Mukesh’s aim in life is to become a motor mechanic. Yes, it is indeed possible for Mukesh to achieve his dreams through hard work and determination. He is willing to walk all the way to the garage and learn even though the garage is quite far from his house.
Question 6. Whom does Anees Jung blame for the sorry plight of the bangle makers?
Ans. For the sorry plight of the bangle makers, Anees Jung blames the sahukars, policemen, middlemen, bureaucrats, politicians and, to quite an extent, the lineage of the bangle makers and the stigmas with their caste.
Question 7. How the steel canister was burden for him?
Ans. The steel canister was a burden for Saheb both literally and metaphorically because unlike the plastic bag he carried around on his shoulder as a ragpicker, the steel canister was much heavier. Moreover, before he started working at the teastall, Saheb was ‘his own master.’ He was free to go anywhere. He had now lost his freedom; he now had a master to work under. Although the job paid him rupees 800 per month, Saheb did not seem much enthusiastic about it. Along with his independence, he had also lost his opportunity for an education.
Question 8. Who is Mukesh ? What is his dream ?
Ans. Mukesh is the son of a poor bangle-maker in Firozabad. Although Mukesh helps his father to make bangles, he dreams of becoming a car mechanic for which he is willing to walk the long distance from his home to the garage where he wishes to train.
Question 9. Is Saheb happy working at the tea stall? Why/Why not?
Ans. No, Saheb is not happy working at the teastall. Although he is paid 800 rupees and is given all his meals, it bothers him that he is no longer his own master. His face has lost the carefree look. The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he used to carry so lightly over his shoulder. The bag was his, the canister belongs to the man who owns the tea-shop.
Question 10. Why could the bangle-makers not organise themselves into a co-operative?
Ans. The bangle makers cannot escape the vicious circle of exploitation by middlemen, money lenders, police and bureaucrats. They fear that organising themselves into cooperative might be treated as being illegal. They are scared of being hauled up and beaten by the police. In addition to the miseries, they also have to face many caste related stigmas. The bangle makers cannot escape their lineage. Years of exploitation has left them timid. This is why there are no leaders who would raise their problems.
Question 11. What does the writer mean when she says, ‘Saheb is no longer his own master’?
Ans. The writer meant that when Saheb was a ragpicker he was a carefree boy, who would work and still have time for himself. But from the time he started working at the tea stall, he lost his freedom as he had to work under a master and follow his instructions. He was no longer free to do as he pleased. Thus, he was no longer his own master.
Question 12. Is it possible for Mukesh to realise his dream? Justify your answer.
Ans. Mukesh’s aim in life is to become a motor mechanic. Yes, it is indeed possible for Mukesh to achieve his dreams through hard work and determination. He is willing to walk all the way to the garage and learn even though the garage is quite far from his house.
Question 13. What does the title ‘Lost Spring’ convey?
Ans. The title ‘Lost Spring’ conveys that the grinding poverty and the traditions which condemn poor children to a life of exploitation, cause them to lose their childhood, which is really the spring time of their life. The slum children have to start earning their living and taking care of their family at a very young age. As a result, they do not get to enjoy a normal childhood.
Question 14. Garbage to them is gold. Why does the author say so about the ragpickers?
Ans. The writer says that garbage is gold for the ragpickers because for children, garbage is wrapped in wonder. They expect to get some coins, notes or valuables in it. If fate permits, sometimes, they find a rupee or even a ten-rupee note. For adults, garbage is a means of livelihood.
Question 15. Describe the irony in Saheb’s name.
Ans. The full name of Saheb is Saheb-e-Alam, which means Lord of the Universe. He does not know the meaning of his name. The irony here is that Saheb in reality is a ragpicker and a refugee from Bangladesh. He is not the ‘Lord of the Universe’.
Question 16. What does the reference to chappals in ‘Lost Spring’ tell us about the economic condition of the ragpickers ?
Ans. The narrator, Anees Jung feels that the ragpickers not wearing chappals is a subtle reference to their economic condition, which is a perpetual state of poverty. They live in unhygienic conditions, and due to their hand-to-mouth existence, the children are forced into labour early in life. As a result, they are denied the opportunity of studying and escaping such a life.
Question 17. How did Saheb’s life change at the tea stall?
Ans. No, Saheb is not happy working at the teastall. Although he is paid 800 rupees and is given all his meals, it bothers him that he is no longer his own master. His face has lost the carefree look. The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he used to carry so lightly over his shoulder. The bag was his, the canister belongs to the man who owns the tea-shop.
Question 18. What is Mukesh’s attitude towards the family business of making bangles?
Ans. Mukesh’s attitude towards the family business of making bangles is that of reluctance. He wants to break free from the family tradition and dares to rebel. Mukesh dreams of becoming a motor mechanic for which he is willing to walk the long distance from his home to the garage every day.
Question 19. What did garbage mean to the children of Seemapuri and to their parents?
Ans. The writer says that garbage is gold for the ragpickers because for children, garbage is wrapped in wonder. They expect to get some coins, notes or valuables in it. If fate permits, sometimes, they find a rupee or even a ten-rupee note. For adults, garbage is a means of livelihood.
Question 20. What does Saheb look for in the garbage dumps ?
Ans. The writer says that garbage is gold for the ragpickers because for children, garbage is wrapped in wonder. They expect to get some coins, notes or valuables in it. If fate permits, sometimes, they find a rupee or even a ten-rupee note. For adults, garbage is a means of livelihood.
Question 21. “It is his Karam, his destiny,” What is Mukesh’s family’s attitude towards their situation?
Ans. Mukesh’s family’s attitude towards their situation is that of mute acceptance. They view bangle making as their destiny. They do not dream of any other option because there is no will, to take the initiative, left in them.
Question 22. Describe Mukesh as an ambitious person.
Ans. Mukesh is the son of a poor bangle-maker in Firozabad. Although Mukesh helps his father to make bangles, he dreams of becoming a car mechanic for which he is willing to walk the long distance from his home to the garage where he wishes to train.
Question 23. What kind of gold did the people of Seemapuri look for in the garbage?
Ans.The writer says that garbage is gold for the ragpickers because for children, garbage is wrapped in wonder. They expect to get some coins, notes or valuables in it. If fate permits, sometimes, they find a rupee or even a ten-rupee note. For adults, garbage is a means of livelihood.
Question 24. Most of us do not raise our voice against injustice in our society and tend to remain mute spectators. Anees Jung in her article, “Lost spring” vividly highlights the miserable life of street children and bangle makers of Firozabad. She wants us to act. Which qualities does she want the children to develop?
Ans. Anees Jung, in ‘Lost Spring’ vividly highlights the miserable life of street children and bangle makers of Firozabad. Through children, like Saheb, Savita and Mukesh, she delves deep into the poverty and tradition, which forces a life of exploitation on these three and many others like them.
It is sad that they are caught in the vicious circle of poverty and exploitation generations after generations. It is not easy to escape it because there is the stigma of caste in which they are born. Moreover, the sahukars, the middlemen, policemen, keepers of law, bureaucrats, etc. make their lives more difficult for them than it already is.
Anees Jung wants us to act, raise our voice against the injustice prevailing in our society. The underprivileged often find themselves helpless and at the mercy of their exploiters. Thus, Anees Jung wants the children to develop compassion for the oppressed and the will and courage to work for social and economic changes in the society.
Question 25. Garbage to them is gold. How do ragpickers of Seemapuri survive?
Ans. The Ragpickers of Seemapuri emigrated to Delhi from Bangladesh, in 1971 in the hopes of a bright and promising future. However, their situation in the city is not as comfortable as they expected. The ragpickers of Seemapuri live in structures of mud, with roofs of tin and tarpaulin. It lacks proper sewage and drainage system and running water. All these years, they have lived without an identity and they are still living like that. In spite of no proper identity and permits, they are surviving. They all have ration cards, which puts them on voters’ list. This enables them to buy grain. Survival is all that matters to them. This is why they pitch their tents wherever there is food. Garbage and ragpicking are means of survival for the people in Seemapuri, it earns them their daily bread and puts a roof over their head. Sometimes, while scrounging, the garbage, finding money, whether one rupee or ten, it the highlight of their day, especially for the children; it gives them hope. Therefore, the writer is right when she says, “garbage to them is gold.”
Question 26. Describe the difficulties the bangle makers of Firozabad have to face in their lives.
Ans. Difficulties faced by the bangle makers of Firozabad are many. They live in a state of perpetual poverty, in ready-to-crumble houses, crowded with a number of families. Besides remaining uneducated for the rest of their lives, they have to work extremely hard for long hours in the glass furnaces in high temperature. Since they work in the dark and dingy cells, many lose their eyesight at a young age. Their difficulties are not limited to just health problems. They are set at a much deeper level. The bangle makers are burdened by the stigma of the caste in which they are born. An adult bangle maker knows nothing except how to make bangles. So, that is all that he can teach his young ones and this continues for generations. The bangle makers cannot escape the vicious circle of exploitation by middlemen, money lenders, police and bureaucrats. They cannot even organise themselves into a cooperative due to the fear that it might be treated as being illegal. This is why there are no leaders who would raise their problems. The bangle makers continue to face apathy and injustice all their lives.
Question 27. Describe the circumstances which keep the workers in the bangle industry in poverty.
Ans. Difficulties faced by the bangle makers of Firozabad are many. They live in a state of perpetual poverty, in ready-to-crumble houses, crowded with a number of families. Besides remaining uneducated for the rest of their lives, they have to work extremely hard for long hours in the glass furnaces in high temperature. Since they work in the dark and dingy cells, many lose their eyesight at a young age. Their difficulties are not limited to just health problems. They are set at a much deeper level. The bangle makers are burdened by the stigma of the caste in which they are born. An adult bangle maker knows nothing except how to make bangles. So, that is all that he can teach his young ones and this continues for generations. The bangle makers cannot escape the vicious circle of exploitation by middlemen, money lenders, police and bureaucrats. They cannot even organise themselves into a cooperative due to the fear that it might be treated as being illegal. This is why there are no leaders who would raise their problems. The bangle makers continue to face apathy and injustice all their lives.
Question 28. How is Mukesh’s attitude towards his situation different from that of Saheb? Why?
Ans. Mukesh’s attitude towards his situation is different from that of Saheb because unlike Saheb, Mukesh is ambitious. Mukesh has his roots in Firozabad. He is born in a family of bangle makers and must follow his father’s footsteps for now. However, he wants to break the family tradition and become a motor mechanic. Saheb, on the other hand, is a rootless migrant from Bangladesh who is content being a ragpicker at Seemapuri. Although, he fancies the idea of going to school, he starts working at a tea stall because the salary is good. Mukesh too is greatly unhappy about his prevailing poverty. However, he is determined to change it. He is ready to walk a long distance every day to a garage and train to become a motor mechanic.
Question 29. “It is his Karam, his destiny” that made Mukesh’s grandfather go blind. How did Mukesh disprove this belief by choosing a new vocation and making his own destiny ?
Ans. Mukesh had seen his parents and other bangle makers of Firozabad suffer all their life. He had witnessed them being unable to escape the vicious circle of poverty and exploitation. While others believed that it was their destiny to be born poor and poverty stricken, Mukesh wanted to disprove this belief by choosing a new line of work. Unlike other children of his age in the town of Firozabad, he had the courage to break free from the family vocation of bangle-making. He wanted to be a motor mechanic and make his own destiny. He was determined to achieve his goal and was prepared to work hard for it. Although the garage, where Mukesh wanted to train to be a motor mechanic, was quite far from his house, he was willing to walk the long distance for the sake of his dreams.
Question 30. Give a brief account of the life and activities of the people like Saheb-e-Alam settled in Seemapuri.
Ans. In ‘Lost Spring’ Anees Jung observes that the life and activities of the people like Saheb-e-Alam depends wholly on garbage. For them it is no less than gold, in fact, it is their daily bread. The poor ragpickers are often barefoot, which she thinks is “an excuse to explain a perpetual state of poverty”. Although, Saheb-e-Alam wants an education, he and other ragpickers are unschooled. (Later, Saheb too takes up a job at a tea stall.) They are migrants (squatters) from Bangladesh, who came to Delhi in 1973. Presently, they live in structures of mud with roofs of tin and tarpaulin, devoid of sewage, drainage or running water. They pitch their tents wherever they find food. They have lived in Seemapuri for more than thirty years without identity and without permits. However, they carry their ration cards. No matter how much hardship they face, the ragpickers of Seemapuri have no intention of going back to their own country.
Question 31. ‘Lost Spring’ explains the grinding poverty and traditions that condemn thousands of people to a life of abject poverty. Do you agree? Why/Why not?
Ans. In ‘Lost Spring’ Anees Jung analyses the grinding poverty and traditions, which condemn thousands of people to a life of abject misery and the slum children to exploitation. The basis of her analysis are the ragpickers of Seemapuri where she meets a little boy named Saheb and Mukesh, whose family is one of the families who have been the bangle makers of Firozabad for generations. Both these children want education so that they can either escape their situation or change it. But, Saheb and Mukesh and others like them are caught in the vicious circle of poverty, apathy and injustice and are affected by the greed of others. This is why, education and healthy and clean living conditions are a distant dream for them. Every day, they have to face various hardships. Yet, they cannot organise themselves into cooperative due to the fear that it might be treated as being illegal. Ultimately, slum children like Saheb and Mukesh have to carry forward the family occupation or find odd jobs to earn a living. In the process, their childhood is the lost spring of their life.
Question 32. The bangle-makers of Firozabad make beautiful bangles and make everyone happy but they live and die in squalor. Elaborate.
Ans. Difficulties faced by the bangle makers of Firozabad are many. They live in a state of perpetual poverty, in ready-to-crumble houses, crowded with a number of families. Besides remaining uneducated for the rest of their lives, they have to work extremely hard for long hours in the glass furnaces in high temperature. Since they work in the dark and dingy cells, many lose their eyesight at a young age. Their difficulties are not limited to just health problems. They are set at a much deeper level. The bangle makers are burdened by the stigma of the caste in which they are born. An adult bangle maker knows nothing except how to make bangles. So, that is all that he can teach his young ones and this continues for generations. The bangle makers cannot escape the vicious circle of exploitation by middlemen, money lenders, police and bureaucrats. They cannot even organise themselves into a cooperative due to the fear that it might be treated as being illegal. This is why there are no leaders who would raise their problems. The bangle makers continue to face apathy and injustice all their lives.
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