LOST SPRING
By Anees Jung
About the Author
Anees Jung is an Indian female author, journalist and columnist who writes
for major newspapers in India and abroad. She was born in Rourkela and
belongs to an aristocratic family in Hyderabad. Her father, Nawab Hoshyar
Jung, who was a renowned scholar and poet, worked as the musahib
(adviser) to the last Nizam (prince) of Hyderabad State. And her mother and
brother are also well-known Urdu poets.
Jung hit the headlines with the publication of ‘Unveiling India in 1987’,
which is primarily a travel diary that focuses on interviews with women.
She went on write many subsequent books on the same topic, and talked to
women about their everyday lives, and wrote books like ‘Night of the New
Moon: Encounters with Muslim women in India’ (1993) and Seven Sisters
(1994). Her book ‘Breaking the Silence (1997) includes conversations on
women’s lives from around the world.
Introduction
The story, “Lost Spring” describes the pitiable condition of poor
children who have been forced to miss the joy of childhood due
to the socio-economic condition that prevails in this man-made
world. These children are denied the opportunity of schooling
and forced into labour early in life. Anees Jung gives voice to
eliminate child labour by educating the children and to enforce
the laws against child labour strictly. The call is to end child
exploitation and let the children enjoy the days.
Characters: Saheb-e-Alam: A rag picker
Mukesh: Son of a bangle maker
Vocabulary
Scrounging – searching for
Glibly - speaking or spoken in a confident way, but
without careful thought or honesty
Hollow – meaningless
Embarrassed - feeling ashamed
abound - exist in large numbers
bleak – empty
perpetual state of poverty - never ending condition of
being poor
Desolation - the state of being empty
Panting - taking short and quick breathes
Desolation - the state of being empty
Panting - taking short and quick breathes
Acquaintance - contact
periphery- outer area
metaphorically–symbolically
squatters - a person who unlawfully occupies
an uninhabited building or unused land
wilderness- a wasteland
tarpaulin- heavy-duty waterproof cloth
Transit homes – a temporary home
looms like a mirage - seems that it will be true in the future but
actually it will not be so
Hovels – slums
Crumbling – falling down
Wobbly – unsteady
Coexisting - present at the same time and place
Primeval – prehistoric
Bangs – hits
Shack – a roughly built hut
Thatched – covered with dry grass
Vessel – container for cooking food
Sizzling - make a hissing sound when frying or cooking
Platters – large plates
Chopped – cut finely
Frail – thin, weak
Impoverished – very poor
God-given lineage - here, a profession carried on through the generations of
a family – glass bangle making
Unkempt – not taken care of
Shanty town - a town that is full of small, roughly built huts
Drab – faded, colourless
Sanctity - the state of being sacred or holy
Draped – covered
Vicious – cruel
Hauled up – dragged, taken away
Apathy – lack of concern
Stigma – dishonor
Hurtling down – moving around
Summary
(Part I): ‘Sometimes I Find a Rupee in the Garbage’ - Saheb-e-Alam (A
rag picker)
The first part tells the writer’s impressions about the life of the poor
rag pickers. The rag pickers have migrated from Dhaka and found a
settlement in Seemapuri (India). Their fields and homes had been
swept away by storms (Socio Political Unrest). They had come to the
big city to find a living. They are poor. The writer watches Saheb every
morning scrounging for “gold” in her neighbourhood. Garbage is a
means of survival for the elders and for the children it is something
wrapped in wonder. The children come across a coin or two from it.
These people have desires and ambitions, but they do not know the way
to achieve them. There are quite a few things that are unreachable to
them, namely shoes, tennis and the like. Later Saheb joins a tea stall
where he could earn 800 Rupees and all the meals. The job has taken
away his freedom.
Part II – I Want to Drive a Car –
Mukesh: Son of a bangle maker
The second part deals with the life of Mukesh, who belongs to the
family of Bangle-makers. Firozabad is best known for its glass-blowing
industry. Nearly 20,000 children are engaged in this business and the
law that forbids child labour is not known here. The living condition
and the working environment is a woeful tale. Life in dingy cells and
working close to hot furnaces make these children blind when they
step into the adulthood. Weighed down by the debt, they can neither
think nor find a way to come out of this trap. The politicians,
middlemen, policemen and bureaucrats obstruct their ways of
progress. The women in the household consider it as their fate and
just follow the tradition. Mukesh is different from the rest of the folk
there. He dreams to become a motor mechanic.
Gist: (Sometimes I find a rupee in garbage)
The author examines and analyses the impoverished conditions and
traditions that condemn children to a life of exploitation these
children are denied an education and forced into hardships early in
their lives.
The writer encounters Saheb – a rag picker whose parents have left
behind the life of poverty in Dhaka to earn a living in Delhi.
His family like many other families of rag pickers lives in Seemapuri.
They do not have other identification other than a ration card.
The children do not go to school and they are excited at the prospect
of finding a coin or even a ten rupee note for rummaging in the
garbage.
It is the only way of earning.
The writer is pained to see Saheb, a rag picker whose name
means the ruler of earth, Lose the spark of childhood and
roams barefooted with his friends.
From morning to noon the author encounters him in a tea
stall and is paid Rs. 800 He sadly realizes that he is no longer
his own master and this loss of identity weighs heavily on his
tender shoulders.
I want to drive a car
The author then tells about another victim, Mukesh who
wants to be a motor mechanic.
He has always worked in the glass making industry.
They are exposed to various health hazards like losing their
eyesight as they work in abysmal conditions, in dark and
dingy cells.
Mukesh’s father is blind as were his father and grandfather
before him.
So burdened are the bangle makers of Firozabad that they
have lost their ability to dream unlike Mukesh who dreams of
driving a car.