ADITYA VIDYASHRAM RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL

PORAIYUR, PUDUCHERY

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LOST SPRING

BY ANEES JUNG

PART – 1 : ‘SOMETIMES I FIND A RUPEE IN THE GARBAGE’

Every morning, the writer sees a young ragpicker boy who visits the garbage dump near her house and
searches for ‘gold’ in it. The writer says that he searches for ‘gold’ ironically because although the
garbage dump is full of useless, thrown away things, still he shuffles it so minutely as if he will get
something as precious as ‘gold’ from it. The boy’s name is Saheb. His home in Dhaka was in the middle
of lush green fields. They had left it many years ago and he does not remember it anymore. His mother
had told him that there were many storms that destroyed their homes and fields. So, they left home and
shifted to the cities in search of ‘gold’. The writer again says, “looking for gold in the big city”. Gold here
refers to something precious which was not available in their hometown. Things like shoes, money, bags,
etc. for the children and food, clothing, shelter as means of survival for their parents. The boy searches for
such precious things in the garbage dumps. One day the writer questions Saheb and asks him the reason
for shuffling through the garbage.

Saheb replies to the writer that he has nothing else to do other than rag picking. The writer suggests that he
should go to school. She realizes that her advice is meaningless for the poor boy. He replies that there are
no schools in the area where he lives. He also assures her that he will go to school when one is built near
his house. The writer asks him jokingly that if she opened a school would he attend it.

Saheb says that he would join the writer’s school and after a few days, he runs up to her to ask whether her
school is ready. The writer replied that it takes a lot of time to build a school. She felt ashamed at making
a false promise. She had said this as a joke and had never intended to open a school, so she felt ashamed
of herself. Saheb was not hurt because he was used to such false promises as they existed in large numbers
in his empty world. He was surrounded by such false promises made by everyone around him. His world
was empty as no promise made to Saheb was ever fulfilled.

The writer had known Saheb for a few months when she asked him his name. He replied as if he was
making an announcement that his name was Saheb – E – Alam. The writer thought that the boy did not
know the meaning of his name and if he came to know that his name meant “Lord of the Universe” he
would not be able to believe it. His name was opposite to his life. He went around the streets with a group
of friends. It was like an army of boys who did not wear any footwear. They appeared in the morning like
the morning birds and disappeared at noon. The writer could recognize all of them as she had been seeing
them for the past few months.

Another boy who was wearing a different shoe in each foot said that even if his mother would have given
him the footwear, he would have thrown it away. He meant that the boy was not wearing footwear
because he did not want to wear one. The writer asked the second boy the reason for wearing a different
shoe in each foot. He did not reply and shuffled his feet as he tried to hide the shoes. A third boy spoke
that he was eager to get a pair of shoes as he had never owned one all his life. The writer takes the
example of shoes to highlight the condition of these boys. They search the garbage dumps looking for
such precious things. She further tells us that as she travelled across the country, she had seen many
children walking barefoot in the cities as well as the villages. They reasoned that they were barefoot not
due to lack of money to buy footwear, but being barefoot was a tradition for them. The writer wondered
and concluded that the reason of it being a tradition was a mere excuse to hide the fact that they were so
poor that they could not afford footwear.

The writer narrates a story told to her by a man from Udipi. (Udipi is a town in Karnataka). When he was
a young boy, he would walk to his school. On the way, he would cross a temple where his father worked
as a priest. He would stop at the temple and pray to God to bless him with a pair of shoes. After thirty
years the writer visited the town and the temple. Now the place was nearly empty. The new priest lived in
the backyard of the temple. Plastic chairs in red and white colour were kept there. A young boy came
running. He was wearing grey coloured school uniform, socks and shoes. He had a school bag hung on his
shoulders. He threw it on the bed and ran away. The writer wants to say that the financial position of the
priest at the temple had improved over the last thirty years. Now, he could afford shoes for this children.
She was reminded of another boy who got a pair of shoes. He prayed to the goddess that he may never
lose the shoes that he had got. The goddess had granted his prayer as the boy never lost his footwear. This
shows us that the underprivileged value anything that they get because they have been longing for it.

The writer describes the area where these rag picker boys live. Seemapuri, located on the outskirt of Delhi
was very different from the capital of the country. In 1971 when these rag pickers had migrated from
Bangladesh, the area had been a wasteland. Seemapuri was still a wasteland but now it was not empty as
almost ten thousand rag pickers lived there in structures made of mud, with roofs made of thin sheets of
tin or plastic material called tarpaulin. There was no sewage, drainage or running water facility in
Seemapuri. They lived in unhygienic conditions. It was a piece of wasteland where the garbage of the city
was collected. These people had started living there illegally.

The ragpickers had been living illegally in Seemapuri for the last thirty years. They have occupied the area
without government permission or ownership. The politicians of the area have provided them ration cards
and voter identity cards. They got grocery for their family through these rations cards and in return, they
cast their votes in favour of the politician who had helped them. The writer asked a group of women who
were wearing torn saris that why did they leave their homes in Dhaka. They replied that if they were able
to satisfy the hunger of their families and sleep well at night, they were happier to live in Seemapuri than
their fields in Dhaka which were ruined and gave them no food.

These people travelled in search of food and wherever they found it, they set up temporary homes and
started living there. Their children kept on growing there and gradually, they also started helping their
parents in seeking means of survival. For those who lived in Seemapuri, the means of survival was rag
picking. As they had been doing it for many years, they became trained at rag picking and did it well. For
the rag pickers the garbage was as precious as gold. These families searched the garbage dumps and got
things which they sold to fund their food. They gathered torn or damaged sheets which were used to cover
the roof of their homes. These did not cover them well but still provided them with some protection. For
the children, the garbage dumps were more than a means of survival.

Saheb was happy to say that sometimes he found a rupee and even a ten – rupee note in the dump. As one
often finds even a silver coin in the garbage dump, he kept on searching hoping to find more. For the
children, the garbage dump was a means of fulfilling their dreams although partially while for their
parents, it was a means of aiding survival by providing the basics – food, clothing and shelter.
One winter morning the writer saw Saheb standing by the fence of a club. He was watching a tennis game
being played by two young men. Saheb liked the game but could not play it. He told the writer that he
went inside the club when it would be closed. He was allowed to take swings by the guard there.

The writer saw that Saheb was also wearing tennis shoes. They did not look appropriate with his dress
which was worn out and had faded. He told the writer in an attempt to justify himself that someone gave
him the shoes. She however figured out that he had got them from a garbage dump. They must have been
thrown away by a boy from a rich family as he did not want to wear them anymore. Probably they had a
hole or two in them due to which he did not want to wear them. On the contrary, Saheb was not bothered
by this fact and had no problem wearing them as he could not afford anything better than that. He walked
barefoot and to wear a shoe even with a hole was like a dream for him. Although due to the garbage dump,
Saheb’s dream of wearing shoes had been partially fulfilled but his desire to play tennis would never be
fulfilled.

One morning the writer met Saheb who was on his way to the milk booth. He was holding a steel
container. He told her that he had got a job at the nearby tea stall. He would earn eight hundred rupees a
month and get meals too. The writer asked him if he liked the job as she could see that he had lost the
carefree look. As now Saheb was working for someone else and was carrying his master’s container, he
was burdened with responsibility. Earlier, as a rag picker, Saheb would carry his own bag and was his own
master. Now, he was no longer his own master.

PART 2: “I WANT TO DRIVE A CAR”

The boy was confident and replied that he would learn to drive a car. His dream was far away from reality
and although the boy was confident, he would succumb to the societal pressures. He lived in Firozabad
which was famous for glass bangles. The writer felt that the boy’s dreams would not materialize and
gradually get influenced by the dusty streets of Firozabad. She wanted to say that as every family in the
town of Firozabad was involved in the glass bangle industry, so would Mukesh do with the passage of
time. She tells us that Firozabad was the main town of India for the glass – blowing industry. The families
had been involved in working at furnaces, welding glass, and making bangles for generations. They made
so many bangles that it seemed that they made bangles for all the women of the world.

Mukesh’s family was also involved in the profession of glass bangle – making. They were not aware of
the law. They did not know that it was unlawful to force children to work in such glass furnaces. The work
places were hot, dark closed rooms without ventilation. The writer felt that if the law would come into
force, it would rescue almost twenty thousand children from these inhuman places where they were forced
to work hard during the daytime. They often ended up losing their eyesight also.

Mukesh was happy as he took the writer to his home. He felt proud as he informed her that it was being
renovated. They walked down streets which were full of garbage and gave foul smell. The streets were
lined with slums which were unsteady. The walls were falling apart, the doors were unsteady, there were
no windows and were full of families where people lived along with animals. They reminded the writer of
the prehistoric man who lived just like animals. Mukesh stopped in front of one such door, hit it hard with
his foot and pushed it open.

The house where Mukesh lived was partially constructed hut. In one corner was a firewood stove made
with dead grass. A vessel with spinach leaves was kept on it. on the ground There were more plates with
chopped vegetables in them. There was a thin, young woman cooking the evening meal for the family.
Her eyes were full of the smoke emanating from the stove but she was still cheerful and smiled to see the
writer. She was the wife of Mukesh’s elder brother. Although she was not much older than Mukesh, she
was a responsible person and was worthy to get respect from the family as the daughter-in-law of the
family. She took care of three men – her husband, Mukesh and their father.

Mukesh’s grandmother justified her son by saying that he was destined to make bangles as it had been
their family profession. She had seen her husband become blind due to the dust from polishing the glass
bangles. She said that their family had got this art of bangle making from God and so they had to carry on
the tradition.

They were born in a particular caste which had to follow the profession of bangle making. All their life
they had just seen these glass bangles. They were everywhere – in the backyard, in the next house, in their
yard and even in the streets of the town. There were huge spiral bunches of bangles in different colours
like gold, green, blue, pink, purple. There were bangles of all the colours of the rainbow. Further, the
writer says that there were bangles in the neglected yards also. They were dumped on handcarts for sale.
They were pushed by men along the streets of Firozabad.

The writer describes the environment where these bangle makers work. They were small, dark huts. The
children would sit next to a line of oil lamps whose flames were unsteady. They, along with their parents
joined the pieces of coloured glass into circles called bangles. As they spent a lot of time in the dark, their
eyes would not adapt to the bright sunlight. Many of them lost their eyesight before gaining adulthood.

There was a young girl by the name of Savita. She wore a faded pink coloured dress. She was sitting with
an elderly woman and they were joining pieces of glass to make bangles. Her hands moved like a machine
just like the tongs of a machine. The writer wondered if Savita knew that bangles were sacred. They were
a good omen for a woman’s wifehood.

She thought that Savita would realize this when she would become a bride. That day she would cover her
head with a red coloured veil, colour her hands with henna and wear red coloured bangles on her wrist.
The elderly woman sitting next to Savita also became a bride many years ago. She was still wearing the
glass bangles but had lost her eyesight now.

The elderly woman complained that she had not eaten even a ser of food. Ser is a unit of measuring
quantity. The woman wants to say that they are so poor that they cannot eat enough food. That is the
benefit that she has received by adopting the profession of bangle-making. The woman’s husband has a
flowing beard. He says that he does not know anything other than bangle – making. All that he has been
able to accomplish is to make a house for his family to live in.

The writer wonders that probably the old man has achieved something which many other people have not
been able to achieve. At least he has been able to secure a shelter for his family.

This problem was prevalent in all the homes which carried on the profession. They did not know anything
else other than bangle-making and it did not even provide them enough to eat. The young men who had
entered the traditional profession also had the same complaint. With the passing time there was no
improvement in their condition. As they had been doing hard work for a countless number of years, they
did not have any ability to do something else or to dream of it.

The writer suggests them to form a cooperative. She talked to a group of young men to get out of the
clutches of the cruel middlemen who had trapped their elders. The men said that if they dared to do
something like that, they would be dragged and beaten up by the police and sent to jail. Their acts would
be termed to be unlawful. The writer felt that as they had no leader, they could not think of doing things
differently. They all were so tired – the men and their fathers.

The men complained that it was a continuous process. Their poor condition led to lack of concern for their
problems. This made them greedy and led to injustice. The writer envisioned that there were two separate
worlds – one was of such families who were stuck in poverty and the pressure of doing the traditional
profession according to the caste in which they were born. The other world is a never-ending cycle of
moneylenders, middlemen, policemen, law keepers, government officials and politicians. Both of these
worlds had forced the young boys to follow the family traditions. The young boys get into the profession
and become a part of the vicious cycle even before they realize it. If they did anything else, it meant that
they were challenging these two worlds.

The boys had not been reared up to be bold so that they could dare to go against the system. The writer
was happy to sense that Mukesh had the spark in him. He repeated that he would be a motor mechanic. He
wanted to go to a garage and learn the job. The writer asked that as the garage was at a distance from his
home, Mukesh insisted that he would walk up to it. She asked him if he dreamt of flying planes. The boy
became silent and refused. He did not know about them as he did not know about planes. Not many planes
flew over Firozabad. As he had only seen cars moving around in Firozabad, his dreams were restricted up
to them.

Word Meanings

Story 1 - ‘Sometimes I find a Rupee in the garbage’

Abound – exist in large numbers Acquaintance – contact

Amidst – in the middle of Barefoot – wearing nothing in the feet
Bleak – empty Bother – worry
Content – satisfied Desolation – the state of being empty
Discarded – thrown away Embarrassed – feeling ashamed
Excuse – a reason to justify a fault Hollow – meaningless
Lighting up – show joy and happiness Scrounging – searching for
Metaphorically–symbolically Mutters – to speak in a low voice
Panting – taking short and quick breathes Periphery- outer area
Permits – legal documents Shuffles – slides them over each other
Tarpaulin- heavy-duty waterproof cloth Tattered – torn
Transit homes – a temporary home Wilderness- a wasteland
Squatters – a person who unlawfully occupies an uninhabited building or unused land
Glibly – speaking or spoken in a confident way, but without careful thought or honesty
Perpetual state of poverty – never ending condition of being poor
He would have a hard time believing it – it would be difficult for him to believe that his name meant
‘the Lord of the Universe’
Story 2 – “I want to drive a car”

Amidst – in the middle of Apathy – lack of concern

Auspiciousness – good omen Baggage – burden
Bangs – hits Beam – shine brightly
Bureaucrats – government officials Choked – blocked
Crumbling – falling down Dawn on her – she will realize
Destiny – fate Dingy – dark, dim
Distinct – separate Drab – faded, colourless
Draped – covered Echo – repeat
Greed – intense and selfish desire for something Hauled up – dragged, taken away
Hovels – slums Hurtling down – moving around
Imposed – forced upon Impoverished – very poor
Labour – hard work Lament – complaint
Mind – numbing – boring Mounds – heaps
Piled – kept one on top of the other Primeval – prehistoric
Reaped – received as a benefit Renovate – repair
Rings – a sound which is repeated Sanctity – the state of being sacred or holy
Ser – a unit of measuring quantity Slog – work hard
Soldering – joining Stinking – bad smell
Spiral – here, a never-ending continuous process Stigma – dishonor
To dare – do something courageous Unkempt – not taken care of
Toil – physical hard work done to earn a living Vicious – cruel
Volunteers – freely offers to do something Welding – joining
Withdraws – goes back Wobbly – unsteady
Yard – the open area at the back of the house
Coexisting – present at the same time and place
Brightness of their eyes – here, refers to the power to see
Daylight hours – hours of the day when there is sunlight
Furnaces – a closed room or container where heat is produced
Glass-blowing industry – industry related to making glass
God-given lineage – here, a profession carried on through the generations of a family – glass bangle
making
Looking straight into my eyes – with confidence and determination
Looms like a mirage – seems that it will be true in the future but actually it will not be so
Shanty town – a town that is full of small, roughly built huts
Veil – a piece of fine material worn by women to protect or hide the face, cover or hide
Tongs – an instrument with two moveable arms joined at one end
Welding – the process of joining metal or glass pieces by heating them