CLASS XII, Lost Spring

 

LOST SPRING-

                      

1.      What is Saheb looking for in the garbage dumps? Where is he and when has he came from?

Ans-   Garbage has a different meaning for children it is wrapped in wonder and for the elders it’s a meaning of survival. Saheb was looking for gold in the garbage dumbs. Gold here means a rupee note, coins and other useful objects. 

                           He came from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He came with his family in 1971. His house was  swept away by storms and therefore they shifted to Seemapuri, a slum on the outskirt of Delhi. 

2.      What explanations does the author offer for the children not wearing footwear?

Ans-  The author came across many shoeless rag picker children in her neighborhood. One explanation was that it is a tradition to stay barefoot. It is not because of lack of money but the tradition of not wearing shoes. However, the author quickly mentions that calling it a tradition could be just a means of justification of poverty.

3.      Is Saheb happy working at the tea- stall? Explain.

Ans- No, Saheb is not happy working at the tea stall. He was paid 800 rupees and all his meals but lost his freedom, his face clearly says all the emption. The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bags that he carried over his shoulder. He is no more his own master. The bag was his but the canister wasn’t his.

4.      What makes the city of Firozabad famous?

Ans-  The city was famous for its glass bangles. Every other family is engaged for making bangles. It is the center of glass blowing industry which families has spent generation working around furnaces, welding glass, making bangles for the women in the land.

5.      Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry?

Ans- Firozabad  was famous for it bangle making. In Firozabad every other family is engaged in bangle making. It is their God- giving- lineage and hence they do not dare to change it. Actually they know nothing except bangle making. Working in a glass bangle industry is dangerous as it has very less light inside which ends up in losing their eye sight at a very young age. The glass furnaces are very high in temperature in digging cells without air and light.  The dust created from the polishing of the glass make them loose their eyesight at a very young age.  They had to work in hutments, next to lines of flames of flickering on oil lamps. Their eyes get more adjust to the dark then the light outside. 

    The furnaces lacked proper ventilation, inhaling the smokes can lead to different diseases. The fate of the children who work in glass furnaces is particularly pathetic. Over 20,000 children work in the hot furnaces where they slog their daylight hours, often losing the brightness of their eyes. Since they were poor they lived in an unhygienic condition, where there were stinking lanes chocked with garbage, crowed with families and animals coexisting in a primeval state. Mind- numbing toil kills all dreams and hopes of child workers in Firozabad. 

6.      How is Mukesh’s attitude to his situation different from that of his family?

Ans- Mukesh family wanted him to learn the art of bangle making which every family of Firozabad does but Mukesh wanted to become a motor mechanic and drive a car. His determination made him different from his family. 

How is garbage gold to the elders?

Ans- Garbage is gold to the ragpickers of Seemapuri because it provides them items which can be sold for cash, which can buy them food and is a mean can buy them food, and is a mean of survival. Moreover it is gold also because the ragpickers can find stray coins and currency notes in it.

What is the irony inherent in Saheb's full name?

Ans- Saheb was a rag picker of Seemapuri. His full name was Saheb- E-Alam, which means lord of the university. But the irony of it that Saheb neither knows the meaning of it nor does he possess the characteristic of it. He scrounges for gold in the garbage dumbs.

Why do the inhabitants of Firozabad end up losing their eye sight?

Ans- The young boys and girls of Firozabad work with their fathers and mothers. They have flickering oil lamb in front of them. They weld pieces of glass in bangles. Their eyes get more used to dark than to the light outside. Many of them lose their eyesight before they become adult. 

what is the significant of bangles in an Indian Society?

Ans- In Indian society bangle symbolizes ' suhaag' for married woman. An Indian Bride invariably wears red bangles in their wrist.

What are the two different worlds of Firozabad?

And- The author noticed two different world one of the family, caught in a web of poverty burdened by the stigma of caste in which they are born; the other a vicious circle of sahukars, the middleman, the policeman, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and the politicians.