Lost Spring

THINK AS YOU READ

Q1. What is Saheb looking for in the garbage dumps? Where is he
and where has he come from?
Ans. Saheb is looking for gold in the garbage dumps. He is in the
neighbourhood of the author. Saheb has come from Bangladesh. He Came
with his mother in 1971. His house was set amidst the green fields of Dhaka.
Storms swept away their fields and homes. So they left the country.

Q2. What explanations does the author offer for the children not
wearing footwear?
Ans. One explanation offered by the author is that it is a tradition to stay
barefoot. It is not lack of money. He wonders if this is only an excuse to
explain away a perpetual state of poverty. He also remembers the story of a
poor body who prayed to the goddess for a pair of shoes.

Q3. Is Saheb happy working at the tea-stall? Explain.

Ans. No, Saheb is not happy working at the tea-stall. He is no longer his own
master. His face has lost the carefree look. The steel canister seems heavier
than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulder. The bag was
his. The canister belongs to the man who owns the tea-shop.

THINK AS YOU READ

Q1. What makes the city of Firozabad famous?
Ans. The city of Firozabad is famous for its bangles. Every other family in
Firozabad is engaged in making bangles. It is the centre of India’s glass-
blowing industry. Families have spent generations working around furnaces,
welding glass, making bangles for the women in the land.

Q2. Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry?

Ans. Boys and girls with their fathers and mothers sit in dark hutments, next
to lines of flames of flickering oil lamps. They weld pieces of coloured glass
into circles of bangles. Their eyes are more adjusted to the dark than to the
light outside. They often end up losing eyesight before they become adults.
Even the dust from polishing the glass of bangles is injurious to eyes. Many
workers have become blind. The furnaces have very high temperature and
therefore very dangerous.
Q3. How is Mukesh’s attitude to his situation different from that of
his family?
Ans. Mukesh’s grandmother thinks that the god-given lineage can never be
broken. Her son and grandsons are bom in the caste of bangle makers. They
have seen nothing but bangles.
Mukesh’s father has taught them what he knows—the art of making bangles.
But Mukesh wants to be a motor mechanic. He will go to a garage and learn,
though the garage is far away from his home.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT

Q1. What could be some of the reasons for the migration of people
from villages to cities?
Ans. People migrate from villages to cities in search of livelihood. Their fields
fail to provide them means of survival. Cities provide employment, jobs or
other means of getting food. The problem in case of the poor is to feed the
hungry members. Survival is of primary concern.

Q2. Would you agree that promises made to the poor children are
rarely kept? Why do you think this happens in the incidents
narrated in the text?
Ans. The promises made to the poor are rarely kept. The author asks Saheb
half-joking, whether he will come to her school if she starts one. Saheb
agrees to do so. A few days later he asks if the school is ready. The writer
feels embarrassed at having made a promise that was not meant. Promises
like hers abound in every comer of their bleak world.

Q3. What forces conspire to keep the workers in bangle industry of

Firozabad in poverty?
Ans. Certain forces conspire to keep the workers in bangle industry of
Firozabad in poverty. These include the moneylenders, the middlemen, the
policemen, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and the politicians. Together
they impose a heavy burden on the child.

Understand The following questions

No need to write in fair notes

TALKING ABOUT THE TEXT

Q1. How, in your opinion, can Mukesh realise his dream?
Ans. Mukesh is the son of a poor bangle-maker of Firozabad. Most of the
young men of Firozabad have no initiative or ability to dream, but Mukesh is
an exception. He has the capacity to take courage and break from the
traditional family occupation. He has strong will power also. He does not
want to be a pawn in the hands of the middlemen or moneylenders. He
insists on being his own master by becoming a motor mechanic.
He can realise his dream by joining a garage and learn the job of repairing
cars and driving them. He will have to overcome many hurdles before he
succeeds. Then comes transport problem. Money is the first one. He will have
to earn some money himself. The garage is a long way from his home. He will
have to cover it twice everyday anyhow—by walking on foot.
Patience, hardwork, firm will and the determination to learn will help him
realise his dream.

Q2. Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry.

Ans. The glass bangles industry has many health hazards. It usually employs
small children. It is illegal to employ very young children in hazardous
industries, but certain forces like ! middlemen, moneylenders, police and
politicians combine to entrap the poor workers.
Let us first consider the places where bangle makers work. It is a cottage
industry. They work in the glass furnaces with high temperatures. The dingy
cells are without air and light. Boys and girls work hard during day next to
lines of flames of flickering oil lamps.

They weld pieces of coloured glass into circles of bangles. Their eyes are more
adjusted to the dark than to the light outside. That is why, they often end up losing
their eyesight before they become adults.
Glass blowing, welding and soldering pieces of glass are all health hazards. Even the
dust from polishing the glass of bangles adversely affects the eyes and even adults
go blind. Thus, the surroundings, prevailing conditions and the type of job involved-
all prove risky to the health of the workers.

Q3. Why should child labour be eliminated and how?

Ans. Child labour should be eliminated because the children employed at
tender age as i domestic servants, dish-washers at road-side dhabas and in
hazardous industries making glass bangles, biris, crackers etc. lose the
charm of the spring of their life. Their childhood is stolen. Burdened by the
responsibility of work, they become adults too soon. Most of them are
undernourished, ill-fed, uneducated, and poor. They have a stunted growth.
Child labour can be eliminated only through concerted efforts on the part of
government agencies, NGOs (Non-Government Organisations), co-operative
societies and political leaders. Mere passing of law will not help. Laws should
be enacted faithfully. The children thrown out of work should be rehabilitated
and given proper food, clothes, education and pocket money. Their feelings,
thoughts and emotions should be respected. Let them enjoy sunshine and
fresh air.
THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE
Although this text speaks of factual events and situations of misery, it
transforms these situations with an almost poetical prose into a literary
experience. How does it do so? Here are some literary devices:
•Hyperbole is a way of speaking or writing that makes something sound
better or more exciting than it really is. For example: Garbage to them is
gold.
•A Metaphor, as you may know, compares two things or ideas that are not
very similar. A metaphor describes a thing in terms of a single quality or
feature of some other thing; we can say that a metaphor “transfers” a
quality of one thing to another. For example: The road was a ribbon of light.
•Simile is a word or phrase that compares one thing with another using the
words “like” or “as”. For example: As white as snow.
Carefully read the following phrases and sentences taken from the text. Can
you identify the literary device in each example?
1.Saheb-e-Alam which means the lord of the universe is directly in contrast
to what Saheb is in reality.
2.Drowned in an air of desolation
3.Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it,
metaphorically.
4.For the children it is wrapped in wonder; for the elders it is a means of
survival.
5.As her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine, I wonder if
she knows the sanctity of the bangles she helps make.
shoulders.
Answers
1.Hyperbole 2.Metaphor 3.Contrast 4.Contrast
5.Simile 6.Contrast 7.Hyperbole 8.Metaphor
9.Metaphor 10.Hyperbole 11.Contrast

THINGS TO DO
The beauty of the glass bangles of Firozabad contrasts with the misery of
people who produce them. This paradox is also found in some other
situations, for example, those who work in gold and diamond mines, or
carpet weaving factories, and the products of their labour, the lives of
construction workers and the buildings they build.
•Look around and find examples of such paradoxes.
•Write a paragraph of about 200 to 250 words on any one of them. You can
start by making notes.
Here is an example of how one such paragraph may begin:
You never see the poor in this town. By day they toil, working cranes and
earth movers, squirreling deep into the hot sand to lay the foundations of
chrome. By night they are banished
to bleak labour camps at the outskirts of the city
Ans. For self-attempt.