LOST SPRING

Loss of Childhood means:

 Loss of Freedom to enjoy

 Involvement in menial jobs
 Physical & mental sufferings
 Don’t get education

Anees Jung
Anees Jung (b. Rourkela 1964) is an Indian woman author,
journalist and columnist for major newspapers in India and
abroad, whose most noted work, Unveiling India (1987) was a
detailed chronicle of the lives of women in India, noted
especially for the depiction of Muslim women behind the
tradition. These excerpts have taken from her book titled LOST
SPRING, THE STORIES OF STOLEN CHILDHOD.

SUMMARY

STORY 1 – Sometimes I Find a Rupee in Garbage:

This is the story of Saheb – a rag picker. The author meets him and asks
why he does not go to school. On getting a reply that there was no school
in his locality, she makes a fake promise that she would open a school for
him. Ashamed at a commitment she cannot keep, she talks to the boy and
gets to know that his parents came to the city in search of better life and
he ended up living on the streets. Saheb is the son of two parents who
migrated from Bangladesh. They came to Delhi in 1971 as their house
was swept away by repeated storms. Then they began to live in
Seemapuri, a slum of Delhi. She explores the life in the slums of
Seemapuri – the place where Saheb lives. They live without any identity
like the ration card, or voter card – after all filling the stomach is more
important than an identity. It is very pitiable that the garbage that others
throw away is like gold to them and they end up looking for food and
livelihood on that.

The story explores the problems he faces – getting exposed to hazardous

waste in the garbage dumps, walking about barefoot, no nourishment or
clothes on his body. Saheb like many other children of the slum was a rag
picker. They searched the rags and garbage and tried to find out coins.
Sometimes they found one rupee coins and sometimes even ten rupee
coins. Saheb did not attend any school as there was no school nearby. He
was too poor to wear chappals. The reaction of the rich is recorded here
as she gets to know that they excuse themselves from doing something
for them by saying things like – it is their tradition not to wear shoes.

Saheb liked the game of tennis. Someone gave him a pair of tennis shoes.
But he would never get the chance to play the game himself. At last, Saheb
got employed in a tea stall. He was not happy as he had lost his freedom.
But he had no choice in the matter.

STORY 2 – I Want To Drive a Car:

This story narrates about the children of the bangle makers of Firozabad.
The life of Mukesh at Firozabad is lost in misery and poverty. Mukesh
lived with his elder brother who was a bangle maker. He wanted to be a
driver and a motor-mechanic, not at all eager to continue bangle making.
But the people thought that it was their karma or the result of their
karma in the previous birth that they were born into the caste of bangle-
makers. So they were destined to make bangles and they could not do
anything else. Thousands of children are engaged in bangle making and
many of them lost their eyesight before becoming adults. They did not
know that it was illegal for children to work in that hazardous condition
in the glass factories. The story is the same in every family. Mukesh took
the writer to his house where the writer came to know that his
grandfather had become blind working in the factory. Similarly in another
family, the author came to know how the husband was happy that he had
been able to make a house for his own family to live in but the wife
complained that she did not get a full meal in her whole life. Hundreds of
years of slavery had killed the initiative of people to think of a better life.
They carried on their miserable life as they did not have the courage to
rebel against tradition. They did not have money enough to start their
own new kind of enterprise. If someone dared to start a new line, there
were police, middle-men, sahukars and politicians to persecute them.
Police, middle-men and others would not allow them to take any other
vocation. Justice after all is the right of the rich and the powerful, not of
the helpless like Mukesh. The condition of the life of Saheb or Mukesh
was far from desirable. It should not be allowed to continue. But some
people must bell the cat. The writer was happy when he came to know
that some young men like Mukesh was ready to take the plunge, rebel
against tradition and start a new life.
 KEY NOTES

Sometimes I Find a Rupee in Garbage:

Author’s encounter with Saheb

 Meets rag picker Saheb belonging to a refuge family from

Bangladesh.
 Question him about his vocation of rag picking and advised him
to go to school
 Promise to open a school
 Felt embarrassed at making a hollow promise
Irony in name and existence

 Full Name ‘Saheb-e-Alam’ meaning ‘lord of the universe

 But deprived of even basic needs scrounge strut with other rag
picker boys
 Bare foot boys reflected extreme state of poverty
Passage of time and degree of prosperity achieved

 Reminded of a priest bare foot son in town of Udipi thirty years

ago.
 Longing for a pair of shoes
 Thirty year later a boy of same age was seen in full school dress
with shoes
 Rag pickers still shoe less.

Seemapuri on periphery of Delhi far away from it

 Dwelling structures of mud. Tin and tarpaulin with no sewage

drainage or running water
 Only boon valid ration card to get grain
 Happy to live in an strange land which provides food grain than
in their mother land without grain
 Rag picking for elders their daily bread and means of survival
for children a treasure of wonderful things
 Saheb’s longing for childhood

 Wish to enjoy pleasures of childhood

 Play tennis, wear shoes
 Watches Rich boys playing Tennis

Saheb’s New vocation

 Work on Tea stall Earns Ids 800’pm

 Appears burdened and forlorn
 No freedom now
 Tin container was heavier than his rag picking bag

I Want To Drive a Car:

Mukesh

 A child labourer in a glass factory in Firozabad

 Wishes to be motor mechanic
 Wants to learn to drive a car
 Family unaware that child labour is illegal

Working condition in glass furnaces

 High temperature
 Dingy cell
 Poorly ventilated
 Children lose eye sight at an early age
 Living conditions in Firozabad

 Houses with crumbling walls

 Humans and animals both live together
 Stinking lanes
 Mukesh; house half built
 For wood stove aluminum utensils

Elder brother’s wife –

 In charge of family members

 According to custom cover her face with veil

Mukesh’s father

 Head of the family

 Poverty stricken unable to renovate house or provide education
to sons
 Only legacy he hand over is the art of bangle making

Mukesh Grandmother’s view

 Their present state result of Karma.

 Accepted her husband’s blindness caused by dust of glass
bangles as their destiny.
 Thinks art of bangle making god given lineage.

Vicious circle of poverty

 No progress despite of years struggle Poverty, Illiteracy

dissatisfaction Victims of middle man and touts
 Fear of police, lack of leadership check their growth
 Irony

 Bangle a symbol of Suhaag

 Every girl child one day as bride will wear bangles.
 Become old with bangles in wrist no sight in eyes.

Children Double victim

 First by birth bordered by stigma of caste second

 No hope : have to accept family occupation
 ruled by Sahukars, Middle men, police
 Little desire to dream snubbed in childhood.

Mukesh : as exception

 Have dream to be motor mechanic

 Practical does not have dream of aeroplanes.
 Only few planes fly over Firozabad.

1. How does the author focus on the ‘perpetual state of

poverty’ of the children not wearing footwear?
The author, much to her surprise, observes that most of the
impoverished children busy in rag picking are not wearing
footwear. Though some people claim that it is not part of their
tradition to wear shoes, the writer could understand that abject
poverty is the sole reason behind this drudgery.
2.”For children, garbage has a meaning different from what
it means to their parents.” Explain
Small children scrounge heaps of garbage as they expect to find
some coins, note or valuable thing in it. Sometimes they lay their
hands on a rupee or even a ten rupee note. This sudden
discovery eggs them on to find more. For children born into
poverty, garbage is a storehouse of wonder. Their elders though,
bereft of any illusions, consider this as another means to make
both ends meet.

[Link] do you think is the theme of ‘Lost Spring’?

The theme of the discussed chapter is abject poverty into which

some unfortunate souls grow up. Deprived of all basic amenities
of life, this set of unfortunate children is introduced to the rough
side of life at a tender age. The callousness of society, the
oppression of political parties, the negligence of upper class
make their lives more untenable.

4. Mention any two hazards of working in the bangle

industry.
The glass bangle industry offers a very unhealthy and hazardous
environment to the people working in it. They have to work in
the glass furnaces with high temperature in dingy cells without
air and light. Workers, including child labourers, lose their
eyesight at an early age. Slogging for long, relentless hours also
has adverse effects on their bodies.

5. Why does the author say that the bangle makers are
caught in a vicious web?

The bangle makers in Firozabad are exploited at the hands of

the Sahukars, middlemen, policemen, law makers, bureaucrats
and politicians. They toil day and night, but are not
paid appropriate wages and are steeped in poverty. They cannot
form cooperatives for their betterment. Moreover, their children
are also compelled to join the same trade at an early age and
cannot dare to take up any other profession.

[Link] was Mukesh’s dream? In your opinion, did he

achieve his dream?

Mukesh’s dream is to become a motor-mechanic. It is difficult

for Mukesh to achieve his dream, as he is torn between his
desires and his family tradition, which he cannot escape.
Besides, he has to face a number of obstacles in the form of
sahukars, middlemen, bureaucrats, law makers, politicians etc.
However, his will to work hard, and his strong determination
could make him achieve his dream.

Long Answers:

1. Comment on the hardships of the bangle makers of

Firozabad with special emphasis on the forces that conspire
against them and obstruct their progress.
Firozabad, the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry, is
famous for its bangles. But the bangle makers lead a miserable
life there. They know no other work than bangle-making. They
have neither courage nor money to start another trade or job.
They have spent generations in the jaws of money lenders and
middle men. Extreme poverty forces them to stay hungry
throughout the day. The elderly woman who works with Savita
has not enjoyed even one full meal in her entire lifetime. Her
husband made a house for the family to live in which was quite
an achievement. Mukhesh’s father fails to send his children to
school. Like elder members of the family, younger ones too are
thrown into the business which took a toll on their mind as well
as body.
2. Why should child labour be eliminated? How must it be
eliminated?
Child labour is a terrible curse that has been gnawing our
society since time immemorial. Born into abject poverty, many
of them join the profession of domestic help. The hazardous
industries of glass bangles, bidi, crackers recruit children in
great numbers and squash whatever little dream they ever have.
Childhood is stolen and they are forced to grow up quickly.
Under-nourished, unfed, uneducated children never enjoy the
bliss of spring. Child labour can be eliminated only
if government agencies, NGOS and political parties form a
common platform to eradicate this curse from the society. Only
introduction of new laws preventing child labour will not solve
the problem as equal emphasis must be given to enforce the law.
Those who relinquish their jobs need proper rehabilitation,
education and shelter so that they can swim back to the main
stream of society.