Lost Spring

Lost Spring

By Anees Jung

Theme

The main theme that both parts of the lesson depict the plight of street children, who are forced into labour in their early childhood.

The sub-theme of the lesson is the callousness of society and the political class to the sufferings of the poor.

Sometimes I find a rupee in garbage

• 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.

Sometimes I find a rupee in garbage

• 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.

• No other way of earning money

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.

Title

Spring is the season of optimism and hope. It symbolises life. Unfortunately, millions of children in our country waste their childhood in rag-picking and other hazardous industries. The joys of childhood, the vibrancy of spring, is lost in dingy cells with furnaces. They even lost their ability to dream.

Open Ended

’Listening to them, I see two distinct worlds.....’ In the context of Mukesh, the bangle-maker’s son, which two worlds Anees Jung referring to?

Open Ended

In spite of despair and disease pervading the lives of the slum children, they are not devoid of hope. How far do you agree?

Multiple Choice

What compels the workers in bangle industry of Firozabad to poverty?

• cast and ancestral profession

• Karam theory and society

• Bureaucrats and politicians

• All of the above

Multiple Choice

Who employs the local families of Firozabad?

• The glass blowing industry

• Politicians

• Merchants

• Bureaucrats

Multiple Choice

What efforts can help Mukesh materialise his dream of becoming a car driver?

• Hard work

• going to garage

• guidance of his owner

• all of the above

Multiple Choice

Who are responsible for the poor condition of bangle makers in Firozabad?

• Parents

• Society

• Bureaucrats

• All

Multiple Choice

Saheb hailed from which place?

• Delhi

• Seemapuri

• Greenfields of Dhaka

• None

Multiple Choice

What is the central theme of the story Lost Spring?

• Saheb and Mukesh

• Spring Season

• Pitiable Poor children and their lost childhood

• garbage

Fill in the Blank

"But many others like the ________________ in my neighbourhood remain shoeless."

Fill in the Blank

Mukesh’s dream looms like a ________________ amidst the dust of streets that fills his town Firozabad.

Fill in the Blank

People in Seemapuri are happy, though they have no

permanent shelter and identity but they have __________.

Multiple Select

What does the writer try to depict in the lesson ‘Lost Spring”?

• Lost adolescence

• Lost childhood

• Lost freedom

• Lost spring season

Multiple Choice

“The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulders.” Identify the literary device used in the sentence.

• simile

• alliteration

• contrast

• none of the above

Multiple Choice

“It is karam, his destiny”’ says Mukesh’s grandmother who has watched her own husband go blind with the dust from polishing the glass of bangles. What character trait of the grandmother is seen here?

• superstitious

• atheist

• fatalist

• religious

Multiple Choice

Their ability to dream and their initiatives have been killed by years of _________________.

• schooling

• money making

• mind numbing toil

• none of the above

Fill in the Blank

For the children, the garbage is wrapped in ________________.

Multiple Choice

“I wonder if she knows the sanctity of the bangles she helps make.” The underlined phrase symbolizes:

• Auspiciousness in marriage

• The job provides good profit

• Richness

• Making bangles is a good job

Multiple Choice

What is the probable reason for children remaining barefoot?

• Lack of money

• Physical illness

• Perpetual state of poverty

• A tradition to remain barefoot

Multiple Choice

What two distinct worlds does the author see in the lives of the bangle makers?

• Sahukars – policemen

• Policemen – bureaucrats

• Middlemen – poor people

• Poor people – influential people