Lost Spring

Question. What does the title, ‘Lost Spring’ convey?

Answer:
The title ‘Lost Spring’ conveys how millions of children in India lose out on living the
‘spring’ of their lives, that is their childhood. The best phase of life is lost in the hardships
involved to earn their livelihood. Poverty forces these young children to work in the most
inhuman conditions as a result of which they miss out on the fun of childhood which hampers
their growth.
Q.What does the writer mean when she says, ‘Saheb is no longer his own master’?
Answer:
Since Saheb now works in a tea-stall, he is now bound to his master and feels burdened. The
steel canister he carries is very heavy as compared to his light plastic bag. The bag was his
own and the canister belongs to his master whose orders he now has to follow. So he is no
longer his own master.
Q.Why could the bangle-makers not organise themselves into a co-operative?
Answer:
The bangle-makers are caught in a vicious web which starts from poverty to indifferences
then to greed and finally to injustice. Mind-numbing toil kills their hopes and dreams.
The bangle makers of Ferozabad were not able to organise themselves into a cooperative
because they had got trapped in a vicious circle of the sahukars, the middlemen, the
policemen, j the bureaucrats and the politicians. Together they had imposed a baggage on
these people 1 which they could not put down.
Q. A young man in Ferozabad is burdened under the baggage of two worlds. What are they?
Answer:
The two worlds that burden a young man in Ferozabad include one of the family, caught in
the web of poverty, burdened by the stigma of ” caste in which they are born; the other a
vicious circle of the sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the keepers of law, the
bureaucrats and the politicians.
Q. “It is his karam, his destiny.” What is Mukesh’s family’s attitude towards their situation?
Answer:
Mukesh’s family have accepted their misery and impoverished condition as factors that have
been ordained by destiny. Years of depravation and suffering has made them accept their
condition passively in the name of fate or destiny. They feel that a God-given lineage can
never be broken and have accepted bangle making as his destiny.
Q. What does the reference to chappals in ‘Lost Spring7 tell us about the economic condition
of the rag pickers?
Answer:
The reference to chappals in ‘Lost Spring’ tells us that the ragpickers were poverty-stricken.
The fact that they are not able to buy chappals reflects their extreme state of poverty because
of which they are unable to buy basic things.
Question. How is Mukesh’s attitude towards his situation different from that of Saheb? Why?
Answer:
Mukesh’s attitude towards his situation is different from that of Saheb. Mukesh is more of a
rebel who dares to be different and wishes to become a motor mechanic. Though, Mukesh
too, like his community, is working in back breaking, mind-numbing glass industry but
unlike his peers, the spark in him has not extinguished. He wants to break free from the
vicious circle which his community has been caught in. Saheb, on the other hand, has
enslaved himself. By taking up work in the tea stall he is no longer his own master. The
difference in their attitude towards their situation can be attributed to the fact that Saheb is a
rootless migrant from Bangladesh and Mukesh is a citizen of India. Moreover, Mukesh dares
to dream. The author too senses a flash of daring in Mukesh and this is what makes his
attitude a little more aggressive than Saheb.
Q. What change did Anees Jung see in Saheb when she saw him standing by the gate of the
neighbourhood club?
Answer:
Saheb was a poor ragpicker who later takes up a job at a tea-stall in an attempt to be a master
of his own destiny. But unfortunately, this move further enslaves him. His new job replaces
his light polythene bag with a heavy steel canister.
It even deprives him of roaming around with his friends without a care in the world. Earlier,
though he did not have the security of a regular income, he had his freedom, and later he did
have an assured income at the end of the month but he had lost his freedom. He was no more
a free bird and his own master. He appeared burdened and forlorn. He was now a bonded
labour who had surrendered his freedom. From being a spirited free bird who was not
answerable to anyone he has become bound. He lives in a society where there is utter lack of
compassion and commitment for the upliftment of these unfortunate children.
Q. In spite of despair and disease pervading the lives of the slum children, they are not devoid
of hope. How far do you agree?
Answer. In spite of growing up amidst despair and disease, children who live in the slum
have the desire to achieve something big in life, like Mukesh. This shows that they are not
devoid of hope. Saheb, a ragpicker, is eager to go to a school and learn. Mukesh, who works
in dark, dingy cells making bangles, dreams of becoming a motor mechanic, which is very
much against his family tradition.