Lost Spring

(Stories of Stolen Childhood)

Anees Jung
“Sometimes I find a Rupee in the garbage dumps”
1. Who is Saheb? What is he doing in the garbage dumps?
Where is he and where has he come from?
Ans. Saheb is a rag picker. Meaning of his name is Saheb-e-Alam but
he doesn’t know what it means. If he knew its meaning -lord of the
universe – he would have a hard time believing it. Unaware of what
his name represents, he is looking for a rupee or coin in the garbage
dumps. He is living in the neighbourhood of the narrator. His family
has come from Bangladesh in 1971.
2. Why did Saheb’s family migrate or come to India? -
Saheb’s family belongs to Dhaka in Bangladesh. They had
homes and green fiends but there were many storms that swept
away their fields and homes. Those fields gave them no grains.
That’s why they left Dhaka and came in Delhi looking for gold or
money.
3. “But promises like mine abound in every corner of his
bleak world.” Explain. Or Why does writer feel her advice to
be hollow? Or Why did the writer feel embarrassed?
Ans. Writer advised Saheb to go to school; in response Saheb says
that “There is no school in my neighbourhood. When they build one, I
will go.” She asked him if he would come to the school when she
started it. Saheb replied affirmatively. A few days later he asked the
writer about the school. She responded him “ It takes longer to build a
school.” There was no meaning of her advice because she never
really meant to open a school. That’s why she felt embarrassed at her
promise; and she said that promises like hers abound in every corner
of his bleak world. Because no one comes forward to help them.
4. What explanations does the author offer for the children
not wearing footwear?
Ans. The author has seen a lot of children walking barefoot in cities
and on village roads. She asked the people about it and they
explained that “It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot.”
But the author, Anees Jung, says that it is only an excuse to explain
away a perpetual state of poverty.
• Why does the author compare Saheb and his friends to the morning
birds?
5. What does garbage mean to the children and their parents?
Or “Garbage to them is gold” why does the author say
this? - It seems that for children, garbage has a meaning
 different from what it means to their parents. For the children it
is wrapped in wonder, for the parents it is a means of survival.
Garbage to them is gold. It is their daily bread and a roof over
their heads. But for a child it is even more.
6. Is Saheb happy working at the tea-stall? Explain or What
job did Saheb take up? Was he happy? - Now, Saheb is
working at the tea-stall and he is paid 800 rupees and all his
meals. This amount is not less. When the author asked him
does he like this job. His face lost the carefree look. He became
sad. He doesn’t like his job. He is not happy working at the tea-
stall because he is no longer his own master. He has to follow
the order of the owner of the tea-stall.
7. Why does the steel canister seems heavier than the plastic
bag to Saheb? - Saheb works now at the tea-stall therefore he
is no longer his own master. The steel canister belongs to the
man who owns the tea shop. But the plastic bag was his and he
would carry it so lightly over his shoulder. It means that he has
to follow the order of the owner of the tea-stall.
• Describe the life of rag pickers in Seemapuri. Or Describe the living
conditions of the children like Saheb. Or describe the miserable
conditions of the rag pickers of Seemapuri.
• What story did a man from Udipi once tell the writer?
“I want to drive a car”
1. What makes the city of Firozabad famous? Or What is the
main occupation of the people of Firozabad? - 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 where families have spent generations working
around furnaces, welding glass, making bangles for all the
women on the land it seems.
2. Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles
industry. Or Why do welders of the glass pieces usually
lose their eyesight?
Ans. They work in the glass furnaces with high temperatures, in dingy
cells without air and light. They work hard during the daylight hours.
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. Years of mind-numbing toil have killed all initiative and the
ability to dream.
 3. How is Mukesh’s attitude to his situation different from that
of his family? Or What does Mukesh want to become in
life?
Ans. Mukesh insists on being his own master. He announces “I will be
a motor mechanic.” In fact he doesn’t know much about the cars; he
has just seen the cars hurtling down the streets of his town. But he
says, “I will learn to drive a car.” On the other hand his family or every
family of Firozabad is engaged in making bangles and they are not
willing to break the God-given lineage. They have no desire to change
their business of making bangles or they have no money to do
anything except carry on the business of making bangles.
4. What forces conspire to keep the workers in the bangle
industry of Firozabad in poverty? Or Why don’t the bangle
makers of Firozabad organize themselves into a
cooperative?
Ans. The bangle makers have fallen into the vicious circle of the
sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the keepers of law, the
bureaucrats and the politicians who trapped their fathers and
forefathers. This force let not them organized. If they try to get
organised, they would hauled up by the police, beaten and dragged to
jail for doing something illegal. There is no leader among them, no one
who could help them see things differently. Their fathers are as tired
as they are. To do anything else in Firozabad would mean to dare.
And daring is not part of their growing up.

• Who is Savita and what is she • How, in your opinion, can

doing ? Mukesh realise his dream?
• What do bangles signify? • Why should child labour be
• “Can a God-given lineage ever eliminated and how?
be broken” Explain.

Deep Water William Douglas

1. Why was the Y.M.C.A. pool safe ? - There was a pool at the
Y.M.C.A. in Yakima that offered exactly the opportunity. The
Y.M.C.A. pool was safe. Because it was only two or three feet
deep at the shallow end; and while it was nine feet deep at the
other, the drop was gradual.
2. When and why did Douglas develop an aversion for water? -
From the beginning, however, Douglas had an aversion to the
water when he was in it. This started when he was three or four
years old and father took him to the beach in California. His father
and he stood together in the surf. He hung on to his father, yet the
 waves knocked him down and swept over him. He was buried in
water. His breath was gone. He was frightened. Father laughed,
but there was terror in his heart at the overpowering force of the
waves.
3. What is the misadventure that William Douglas speaks about?
Or What accident took place with writer at the Y.M.C.A. pool?
Or Why did the writer have fear of water?
Ans. It had happened when William Douglas was ten or eleven years
old. He had decided to learn to swim in the Y.M.C.A. pool. He was just
beginning to feel at ease in the water when the misadventure
happened. He went to the pool when no one else was there. He was
timid about going in alone, so he sat on the side of the pool to wait for
others. A big bruiser of a boy came and picked him up and tossed him
into the deep end. He was saved by someone otherwise he would
have been died in that misadventure.
4. What plan did Douglas make to come to the surface of the
water? Or What did the author think when he was drowning in
deep water?
Ans. A big bruiser of a boy came to Douglas and picked him up and
tossed him into the deep end. He landed in a sitting position,
swallowed water, and went at once to the bottom. He was frightened,
but not yet frightened out of his wits. On the way down he planned:
When his feet hit the bottom, he would make a big jump, come to the
surface, lie flat on it, and paddle to the edge of the pool.
5. Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water? Or
What effect did the author’s fear of water have in his life?
Ans. Whenever and whenever he came to contact with water, the
terror that had seized him in the pool would come back. It would take
possession of him completely. His legs would become paralysed. Icy
horror would grab his heart. This handicap stayed with him as the
years rolled by. It ruined his fishing trips; deprived him of the joy of
canoeing, boating, and swimming. He used every way he knew to
overcome this fear, but it held him firmly in its grip. Finally, one
October, he decided to get an instructor and learn to swim.
6. Why did Douglas decide to take help from an instructor? -
wherever Douglas went, the haunting fear of the water followed
him. It ruined his fishing trips; deprived him of the joy of canoeing,
boating, and swimming. He used every way he knew to overcome
this fear, but it held him firmly in its grip. Finally, one October, he
decided to get an instructor and learn to swim.
7. How did the instructor “build a swimmer” out of Douglas?
Ans. The instructor put a belt around Douglas. A rope attached to the
belt went through a pulley that ran on an overhead cable. He held on
to the end of the rope, and they went back and forth, back and forth
across the pool. Then instructor taught him to put his face under water
and exhale, and to raise his nose and inhale. He repeated the
exercise hundreds of times. Next the instructor held him at the side of
the pool and had him kick with his legs. For weeks he did just that.
Thus, piece by piece, the instructor built a swimmer. And when he had
perfected each piece, he put them together into an integrated whole.
In April he said, “Now you can swim.”
• How did Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror? Or
How did Douglas overcome his fear of water? Or Why did Douglas
have fear of water and how did he overcome it?
By R.K. Chaudhary