XII-Eng.CBSE. Core (301) Ch-2 LOST SPRING FLAMINGO SUMMARY, CHARACTERS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, THEME MESSAGE

Ch-2

Lost Spring by Anees Jung

“The Stories Of Stolen Childhood” 

        

 INTRODUCTION TO THE LESSON

Lost Spring is a meaningful title of the reporting of plight of rag-pickers by Anees Jung. It refers to the plight of thousands of little rag-pickers in Delhi and the bangle-makers in the U.P. town of Firozabad. These kids have lost their present and also their future. They will never see or feel the spring of their carefree childhood or their blooming youth. They have become wage- earners at a very early age. They look for little coins in garbage dumps. They are barefoot and in rags. Only a handful of them can dream of getting the discarded tennis shoes to wear or become a car mechanic. Their parents had migrated to Delhi from Bangladesh in 1971. For all these years they have been working as rag-pickers and living in dirty, dingy and stinking slums.

The second part of the report is about the glass-blowers and bangle-makers in Firozabad. For generations, the families have been working at the furnace to earn their bare daily bread. They are illiterate and the victims of exploitation by the sahukars, the police and the politicians. Their suffering is endless and goes unreported even in free India. The picture should be an eye-opener to all the privileged vote-seekers and greedy exploiters.

 DETAILED SUMMARY

Part -1

The writer finds children every morning looking for gold in the garbage heaps. These are rag-pickers. Their parents had come from Dhaka in Bangladesh and settled in Delhi. Acute poverty compels them to adopt rag-picking as a means of livelihood. The author, Anees Jung, asks one boy Saheb why he is turning over garbage. He has no memory of his green fields and his home in distant Dhaka. He replies frankly that he has nothing else to do. He cannot go to school because there is none in the neighbourhood. He, however, agrees to join if she starts a school. He takes her promise made jokingly with great expectations.

The boy's name is Saheb-e-Alam. He does not know that the word means lord of the universe. He roams the streets with a large number of barefoot boys. They all set out in the morning like birds and disappear at noon. The author asks one why he does not wear chappals. Either the mother does not bring them down from the shelf, or he will only throw them away. One boy wears shoes that do not match. Still another wants shoes. Rag-pickers everywhere walk barefoot in cities and on village roads. It is not because of the lack of money, but it is a tradition to stay barefoot. It is certainly an indication of their poverty.

The author is reminded of a story told to her by a man from Udupi in South India. As a young boy he used to go to school past an old temple where his father was a priest. The boy would stop briefly at the temple and pray for a pair of shoes. Thirty years later the author visited Udupi again The new priest lived in the backyard. A young boy dressed in school uniform, wearing socks and shoes arrived there. He was the son of the new priest and he now wore shoes. Times had changed, after all.

The writer takes interest in the lives of the barefoot rag-pickers. She visits Seemapuri, a colony of Bangladeshis in Delhi. They had come there in 1971, set up mud huts with roofs of tin and waterproof polythene sheets. There is no drainage, no running water for 10,000 rag-pickers who have lived there for 30 years. They have no identity cards. They are illegal migrants. But they do have ration cards and they have their names on the voters' list. The women are clad in worn-out saris. They shift their tents wherever they find food and water. Rag-picking is their only means of survival. This business has become a sort of fine art. Garbage to them is a dump of gold It is their daily bread.

But for children, a garbage-dump is a real treasure-house. Sometimes Saheb finds a ten-rupee note or a silver coin. He hopes to find more. Garbage for the elders is a means of survival, but for children it is wrapped in wonder. One winter morning, the writer finds Saheb watching two young men playing tennis in the club. He likes the game. When no one is around, the gardener lets him go inside. Some rich boy has given him discarded tennis shoes to wear, shoes with holes in the soles. But it is a dream come true. One morning, Saheb is seen going to the milk booth with a tin canister. He says that he now works in a tea stall and gets 800 rupees a month plus meals. But he has lost the carefree look. The tin canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he used to carry earlier on his shoulder. The reason is that he is no longer his own master. He is not happy working at the tea stall.

Part-2

Another boy Mukesh wants to be a motor mechanic. He hails from Firozabad, a town famous for bangles, in U.P. Every family is engaged in making bangles. The town is the centre of India's glass-blowing industry. Families have spent generations there working around furnaces and welding glass. The children there do not know that it is illegal to work in the glass furnaces. The work is done in small cells without proper light and air. The workers often lose their eyesight.

Mukesh takes the author to his hut in a dirty, stinking lane. It is a half-built shack. A weak young woman is cooking the evening meal for the whole family. She is the wife of Mukesh's elder brother. When the father-in-law enters, she goes behind the broken wall and covers her face with a veil. The old man's reward of lifelong labour is that half-built hut. All he has managed to teach his children is the art of making bangles. Mukesh's grandfather had become blind, polishing glass bangles.  Their eyes are more adjusted to darkness than to the  day light outside.

The author finds a young girl Savita making bangles, which symbolize an Indian woman's Suhaag. But she does not know the sanctity of the bangles she helps make. No family there has enough to eat. Little has moved with time. They are slaving for the middlemen. If they try to form a union or cooperative society, they are beaten and jailed by the police. They are born in the caste of bangle-makers. Then, they are exploited by the Sahukar, the police and the politicians. Mukesh, somehow, is nursing a dream to become a motor mechanic. He is content to dream of cars and not of planes because aeroplanes do not fly over Firozabad.

Character sketch Of  Saheb -e -Alam

Full name of Saheb is Saheb-e- Alam which means lord of the universe. There is a deep irony in his name.He is a poor ragpicker of Seemapuri who came from Bangladesh (Dhaka) 1971.Around ten thousand children working as ragpickers. Garbage to ragpicker is gold.It is only the source of income , daily breads and means of roof over their heads.Ragpickers live in Seemapuri without any identity.They have only ration card with that they can get grains and cast their Saheb is willing to go to school but there is no school for him.At last Saheb works in the tea stall and gets Rs. 800 all his meals but he is not satisfied with this.

Character sketch Of Mukesh 

Another story such as Mukesh who belongs to a bangle makers family in Firozabad.His family traditions and poverty have forced him to work in the inhuman conditions of a bangle industry.Around 20 thousand children working in bangle industry under high temperature without air and light.

Due to the dust particles of bangles, colour and polish of bangles, they loose their eyesight before they become adults.

The polish and colour of bangles is very injurious for their eyes, skin and health, maximum bangle makers develop ulcer and cancer and many other diseases. Their eyes are more adjusted to darkness rather than daylight.But Mukesh thinks out of box.He wants to become a motor mechanic.He wants to break the profession of generation.

Thanks for reading 

(English Confluence by CLGautam)

Ch-2 Lost Spring

Questions and answers 

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https://youtu.be/xqM2T9-ofuw?si=yz64mHJtvL4S2HU1

Questions and answers 

Of The Last Lesson 

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https://youtu.be/ybmrhB5wBcs?si=EKVR5dhQxgQ-U2WL

Poem-1 My Mother 66 Questions answers 

https://youtu.be/657T-rW-Woo?si=Lx71ZxzKAWdxoA6r