ENGLISH PROJECT

ON THE CHAPTER

“LOST SPRING”
Stories of Stolen Childhood
by Anees Jung

A project submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements of English (Core) – Class XII

CBSE Board

Name of Student _______________________________

Class & Section _______________________________
Roll Number _______________________________
Name of School _______________________________
Subject English (Core)
Submitted To _______________________________
Session 2025 – 2026

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 INDEX
1. Acknowledgement
2. Certificate of Completion
3. Objectives
4. Action Plan
5. About the Author
6. Theme
7. Details of the Project
(i) Introduction
(ii) Characters
(iii) Storyline
(iv) Message
8. Report
9. Bibliography
10. Remarks

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my English teacher for their
constant guidance, encouragement, and valuable suggestions throughout the
making of this project on “Lost Spring” by Anees Jung. Their support helped me
understand the chapter in greater depth and present it in a structured manner.

I am also thankful to the Principal and the school administration for providing the
resources and environment necessary to complete this project.

I extend my heartfelt thanks to my parents and friends for their continuous

motivation, patience, and help in collecting information and reviewing my work.

Finally, I am grateful to the authors of the reference books and websites listed in
the bibliography, whose work helped me build a well-rounded understanding of
the chapter.

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 CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

This is to certify that ______________________________ , a student of Class XII,

Section _______, of ______________________________________ School, has successfully
completed the English project on the chapter “Lost Spring” by Anees Jung, under
my guidance, during the academic session 2025–26.

This project has been prepared in accordance with the guidelines prescribed by
the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for Class XII English (Core),
and is the original work of the student.

Date: ____________

_______________ _______________ _______________

Subject Teacher Examiner Principal

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 OBJECTIVES
• To understand and analyse the central themes of poverty, child labour, and
exploitation as portrayed in “Lost Spring”.
• To study how Anees Jung uses the real-life stories of Saheb-e-Alam and
Mukesh to expose the harsh realities faced by underprivileged children in
India.
• To examine the relationship between tradition, circumstance, and the loss of
childhood among the poor.
• To develop skills of critical reading, summarising, and character analysis
through the study of a prose chapter prescribed by the CBSE syllabus.
• To reflect on the social and economic issues raised in the text and connect
them to present-day concerns such as child labour laws and the Right to
Education.
• To improve research, presentation, and written expression skills through the
preparation of a structured project report.

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 ACTION PLAN
Step Activity Description
Chose the chapter “Lost Spring” for in-
Step 1 Selection of Topic
depth study and project work.
Reading & Read the chapter carefully multiple times to
Step 2
Comprehension understand plot, characters, and themes.
Gathered background information on the
author, the setting (Seemapuri and
Step 3 Research
Firozabad), and related social issues like
child labour.
Prepared notes on characters, storyline,
Step 4 Note-Making
theme, and message of the chapter.
Organised the collected material under
Step 5 Drafting appropriate headings as per the project
format.
Reviewed the draft with the teacher’s
Step 6 Review & Editing
guidance and made necessary corrections.
Compiled the final project with certificate,
Step 7 Final Compilation index, and bibliography, and submitted it for
evaluation.

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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anees Jung is a well-known Indian author, journalist, and columnist, celebrated
for her sensitive and perceptive writing on the lives of ordinary people,
particularly women and children living in poverty. Raised in Hyderabad and
educated at Osmania University, she went on to build a distinguished career in
journalism, writing widely for Indian and international publications.

Her writing often blends journalism with a literary, reflective style, drawing
readers into the everyday struggles of people who are usually invisible to
mainstream narratives. She has authored several acclaimed books, including
“Unveiling India,” “Night of the New Moon,” “Beyond the Courtyard,” and “Lost
Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood,” from which the prescribed chapter is taken.

In “Lost Spring,” Anees Jung documents the lives of ragpickers and bangle-
makers, showing how poverty, tradition, and social apathy conspire to rob
children of their childhood. Her work is marked by empathy, close observation,
and a quiet insistence that these stories be heard.

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 THEME
The central theme of “Lost Spring” is the loss of childhood among poor children
in India due to poverty, social apathy, and exploitative traditions. Through the
true stories of Saheb-e-Alam, a ragpicker boy in Seemapuri, and Mukesh, a
bangle-maker’s son in Firozabad, Anees Jung highlights how circumstances of
birth trap children in cycles of poverty and deny them access to education,
dignity, and opportunity. The title itself, ‘Lost Spring,’ is symbolic: spring, the
season of renewal, blossoming, and joy, is used here as a metaphor for childhood
— a period that ought to be filled with play, learning, and hope, but which is
stolen from these children almost as soon as it begins.

One of the most significant sub-themes of the chapter is the exploitation of child
labour by moneylenders, contractors, and unregulated industries. In Seemapuri,
ragpicking becomes a means of daily survival for entire families, with garbage —
something society discards without a thought — transformed into a source of food
and income. In Firozabad, generations of families are bound to the bangle-making
industry, working in hazardous, poorly lit conditions that damage their eyesight
over time, while sahukars, policemen, and middlemen ensure that the workers
never accumulate enough capital or courage to break free and start businesses of
their own. This cycle of debt and dependency illustrates how economic
structures, rather than a lack of ability or ambition, keep entire communities
trapped in poverty.

Closely related to this is the theme of tradition versus aspiration. Mukesh’s family
has made bangles for generations, and this occupation is treated by his elders as
an unquestionable inheritance, almost a fate cast by caste and custom. Mukesh’s
wish to become a motor mechanic and drive a car represents a quiet act of
rebellion against this inherited destiny. Anees Jung uses this contrast to explore
how tradition, while providing identity and continuity, can also become a cage
when it forecloses the possibility of change, especially for the young.

The chapter equally critiques the apathy of society and the government
machinery towards the poor. The narrator observes how Seemapuri exists on the
periphery of Delhi — close enough to the city to be seen, yet far enough to be
conveniently ignored by policy and administration. Similarly, in Firozabad,
despite laws prohibiting child labour in hazardous industries, enforcement is
weak, and the nexus between local politicians, police, and the glass industry
ensures that nothing changes for the workers. Anees Jung does not present this
apathy through anger or direct accusation, but through quiet, factual observation
— which, in many ways, makes the critique even more powerful.

Despite this bleak social reality, the chapter carries an undeniable thread of hope
and resilience. Saheb’s simple wish for a pair of shoes and Mukesh’s dream of
driving a car are small, almost modest ambitions when compared to the scale of
the poverty around them — yet they represent something powerful: the refusal of
the human spirit to stop imagining a better future, even when the odds are
stacked heavily against it. In this way, “Lost Spring” is not merely a chapter of
despair, but also a meditation on the quiet resilience of children who continue to
dream despite having every reason not to.

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Ultimately, the theme of “Lost Spring” operates on two levels — as a social
document exposing the realities of poverty, child labour, and systemic neglect in
India, and as a humanist reflection on hope, resilience, and the universal right of
every child to a childhood free of exploitation.

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 DETAILS OF THE PROJECT
(i) Introduction
“Lost Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood” is a poignant prose piece by Anees
Jung, prescribed in the CBSE Class XII English (Core) textbook ‘Flamingo’.
Written in the form of two linked narratives — ‘Sahib-e-Alam’ and ‘I Want to
Drive a Car’ — the chapter presents real-life accounts of children whose springs,
or years of youthful joy and possibility, are lost to poverty and circumstance.
Through vivid description and direct observation, the author brings to light the
world of ragpickers in Seemapuri, Delhi, and bangle-makers in Firozabad, Uttar
Pradesh, revealing how deeply poverty and tradition are woven into the fabric of
these children’s lives.

Anees Jung writes not as a distant commentator but as someone who walks
through these settlements and workshops herself, speaking directly with the
children and recording their words, gestures, and small hopes almost exactly as
she encounters them. This first-person, journalistic approach gives the chapter an
unusual authenticity: the reader is not simply told about poverty in the abstract,
but is introduced to specific individuals — Saheb, Mukesh, their families and
neighbours — whose particular circumstances make the larger social problem
impossible to ignore.

The chapter derives its title from a powerful metaphor. ‘Spring’ traditionally
suggests renewal, growth, and the blossoming of youth, yet for the children
Anees Jung writes about, this spring is ‘lost’ — taken away by the burden of daily
survival long before it can be properly lived. The two parts of the chapter, though
set in different cities and dealing with different trades, are united by this single
idea: that poverty compels children into adult responsibilities and adult labour,
denying them the education, security, and simple joys that childhood is meant to
offer.

Set against the backdrop of India’s urban margins — the ragpicking slums on the
outskirts of the capital and the glass-bangle workshops of a small industrial town
— the chapter also functions as a wider commentary on the country’s social and
economic structures. It quietly raises questions about migration, refugee
settlement, caste-based occupation, child labour, and the failure of law and
administration to reach those who need protection the most. In doing so, ‘Lost
Spring’ moves beyond being a mere descriptive account and becomes a piece of
social documentation with lasting relevance.

(ii) Characters
• Saheb-e-Alam: A young ragpicker boy living in Seemapuri, Delhi. Originally
from Bangladesh, his family migrated to India after their homes were
destroyed by storms. He spends his days scavenging garbage dumps for
saleable items, dreaming simple dreams such as owning a pair of shoes.
• Mukesh: A boy from Firozabad, the bangle-making town of India. Belonging
to a family of bangle-makers, he dares to dream differently from his
ancestors — he wishes to become a motor mechanic and learn to drive a car,
breaking free from the family’s traditional, hazardous occupation.

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 • The Narrator (Anees Jung): The author-observer, who moves through
Seemapuri and Firozabad, recording the lives, hopes, and struggles of the
children she meets.
• Saheb’s Companions: Other ragpicker children of Seemapuri who scavenge
alongside Saheb, sharing his poverty but not always his ability to dream.
• Mukesh’s Family: Including his grandmother and father, who represent the
older generation bound by tradition, caste occupation, and the cycle of debt
to sahukars (moneylenders).
• Savita: A young woman in Firozabad seen soldering glass bangles,
symbolising countless young girls whose lives are similarly bound to the
bangle industry from a very young age.

(iii) Storyline
The chapter unfolds in two distinct but thematically connected parts, each
following the life of a different child in a different city, yet both converging on the
same central idea — that poverty steals childhood.

The first part, ‘Sahib-e-Alam,’ opens with the author's description of Seemapuri, a
squatter colony on the outskirts of Delhi where refugees from Bangladesh, who
arrived after a storm devastated their land in 1971, have lived for years without
proper identity papers, sanitation, or security — yet with the one asset that
matters to them: survival itself, sustained through ragpicking. Saheb-e-Alam,
whose name ironically means ‘lord of the universe,’ is introduced as a barefoot
child scavenging through garbage dumps every morning alongside other children
of the settlement, treating the garbage almost as a treasure hunt, since even a
small find can mean food for the day.

The author recounts her first meeting with Saheb, when she jokingly asks him
why he doesn’t wear shoes, only to learn that he does not own a pair. Moved by
this, she later gifts him a pair of shoes, an act that briefly makes Saheb happy in a
way that highlights just how little it takes to bring joy into a life defined by
scarcity. As the narrative progresses, however, the author revisits Seemapuri
some time later and finds that Saheb no longer roams free as a ragpicker; he has
taken up work at a tea stall nearby, earning a fixed wage of eight hundred rupees
a month along with his meals. While this appears to be an ‘upgrade’ in
employment, the author notes that Saheb has, in the process, lost the carefree,
wandering freedom of ragpicking — he is now bound by fixed hours and an
employer, carrying a steel canister instead of his old plastic bag, his childhood
further compressed by the demands of steady labour.

The second part, ‘I Want to Drive a Car,’ shifts the setting entirely to Firozabad, a
small town in Uttar Pradesh renowned across India for its bangle-making
industry. Anees Jung describes the town’s glass furnaces and small, dimly lit
cottage workshops where families — including young children — sit for hours
soldering pieces of coloured glass into bangles, often losing their eyesight well
before old age due to the heat, dust, and lack of proper lighting or safety
measures. Bangle-making here is not simply an occupation but an inherited
identity: children are born into it, expected to continue their family’s caste-based
trade without question, with very few ever imagining, let alone pursuing, an
alternative path.

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It is within this setting that the author meets Mukesh, a young boy whose family
has made bangles for generations, but who surprises her by declaring that he
does not wish to continue the family occupation. Instead, Mukesh dreams of
becoming a motor mechanic, of learning to drive, and of one day owning and
driving a car himself — an ambition that seems almost fantastical given his
circumstances, yet one he states with quiet, unwavering conviction. The author
visits Mukesh’s home, meets his grandmother and other family members, and
observes the stifling cycle of poverty, debt to sahukars, and social pressure that
keeps the community bound to bangle-making despite its health hazards and poor
returns. Through details such as the arrival of a government school bus that few
children actually use, and the presence of a local vocational training centre for
polishing bangles rather than training in other trades, the author subtly
illustrates how even well-intentioned interventions fail to break the underlying
cycle. Mukesh’s dream, modest as it may be, stands out as a rare and fragile
spark of change within this otherwise unchanging world.

(iv) Message
“Lost Spring” conveys a powerful message about the injustice of poverty and the
loss of childhood it causes among millions of children in India. It shows how
circumstances of birth — caste, place, and economic condition — can determine a
child’s entire future, denying them education, safety, and the simple joys of
growing up. Neither Saheb nor Mukesh chose the world they were born into, and
yet both are made to bear its full weight from a very young age, forced to work
rather than study, to earn rather than play.

The chapter also delivers a strong message about the invisible chains of tradition
and social structure. Mukesh’s family does not force him into bangle-making out
of cruelty, but because they know no other way of life, and because generations
of caste-based occupation have narrowed their sense of what is possible. Anees
Jung gently suggests that breaking such cycles requires not just individual
courage, like Mukesh’s, but also structural change — access to real education,
vocational alternatives, fair wages, and protection from exploitative middlemen
and moneylenders.

Equally important is the message about the responsibility of society and the state.
The chapter implicitly criticises the apathy of a system that allows entire
communities to live without basic identity documents, sanitation, or safe working
conditions, on the very edges of a thriving capital city and within a nationally
famous industry. In doing so, Anees Jung reminds readers that poverty and child
labour are not natural or inevitable conditions, but the result of policy failures,
weak law enforcement, and social indifference — all of which can, and should, be
addressed through conscious effort.

Yet, despite this critique, the chapter’s deepest message may be one of quiet
hope and human resilience. Saheb’s wish for a pair of shoes and Mukesh’s dream
of driving a car are small in scale but immense in meaning: they show that even
in conditions of deep deprivation, children continue to imagine a different, better
future for themselves. This capacity to dream, Anees Jung suggests, is precisely
what must be nurtured and protected — not crushed under the weight of poverty

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and tradition — if society genuinely wishes to give every child their rightful
spring.

On a broader level, the chapter urges readers — particularly young readers

within the education system themselves — to become aware of the privileges they
may take for granted, such as access to school, safety, and the freedom to dream
of any career. It calls for empathy, informed citizenship, and eventually, action:
whether through supporting stronger child labour laws, backing initiatives for
universal education, or simply recognising and respecting the dignity of every
child, regardless of the circumstances of their birth.

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 REPORT
This project undertook a detailed study of “Lost Spring” by Anees Jung,
examining its narrative structure, characters, themes, and social relevance. The
chapter, though brief, offers a rich case study of how literature can document
real social issues — in this case, the exploitation and poverty faced by ragpicker
and bangle-maker communities in India.

Through the course of this project, it became evident that the problems depicted
by Anees Jung are not merely historical or literary but continue to be relevant in
present-day India. Child labour, though legally restricted under laws such as the
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, persists in various unorganised
sectors due to poverty, lack of enforcement, and deep-rooted social structures.
Similarly, the Right to Education Act, 2009, which guarantees free and
compulsory education to children aged 6 to 14, aims directly at addressing the
kind of educational deprivation seen in Saheb’s and Mukesh’s lives.

The project also highlighted the effectiveness of Anees Jung’s narrative style —
her use of vivid imagery, direct quotations from the children themselves, and
restrained, observational prose — in making the reader confront uncomfortable
social truths without resorting to overt moralising. This makes “Lost Spring” not
just a chapter of literary value but also a document of social awareness.

In conclusion, this project has deepened my understanding of how poverty and

tradition intersect to steal the childhood of millions of children in India, and has
reinforced the importance of continued social and governmental action to protect
children’s rights to education, safety, and opportunity.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Jung, Anees. “Lost Spring.” Flamingo: Textbook in English for Class XII. New
Delhi: NCERT, various editions.
• NCERT English Core Textbooks and Support Material, Class XII –
[Link]
• Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) – Curriculum and Sample
Papers, English Core – [Link]
• Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India – Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act information – [Link]
• Department of School Education and Literacy – Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act, 2009 – [Link]
• Class notes and discussions held during English (Core) lessons on “Lost
Spring.”

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 REMARKS
(For Teacher’s Use)

Teacher's Signature: ____________________ Grade/Marks: ________

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