CBSE Class 12 English Lost Spring Notes Set 03

Lost Spring – STORIES OF STOLEN CHILDHOOD

• Narrative of marginalized youth in India
• The writer portrays how these children share similar dreams and aspirations as their peers, yet their impoverishment and situations sharply contrast with those of typical children.
• Experience food scarcities
• Trapped in the cycle of child labor
• Endure physical, mental, and emotional hardships

Sahib e alam-Lord of the universe

• A young lad who migrated with his family from lush fields of Dhaka in 1971
• Each morning, observed by the author as he searches for 'treasure' in the local rubbish heaps
• Unable to attend school due to poverty, works barefoot
• Resides in Seemapuri among numerous others surviving by collecting scraps - lacking basic necessities
• Dreams of receiving an education and playing tennis but finds solace simply in donning discarded footwear - resigned to his destiny
• Loses his carefree demeanor and liberty when he is employed as a child laborer at a tea stand

Mukesh

• Hails from Firozabad – renowned for its bangle industry
• Works tirelessly in the glass furnace, fusing glass and crafting bangles at extremely high temperatures in a grimy, cramped space with no light – risking his eyesight.
• Carries on the family tradition for now, but he is bold and distinct from the youth of Firozabad, who have relinquished all motivation after years of numbing labor.
• Nurtures an aspiration - aims to pursue a career as a motor mechanic and desires independence - resolute in his decision ‘I will persevere,’ he asserts, even if the workshop is far from his residence.
• Positioned to realize his aspiration because he is truly uninterested in continuing the craft of bangle making - he refuses to be confined by his societal caste.

Seemapuri: Community of Bangladeshi Squatters

• Unauthorized inhabitants - displaced from their homeland due to a catastrophic storm in 1971, prioritizing food and basic existence
• Residing in a state of constant impoverishment
• Located on the outskirts of Delhi, far removed from its opulence and grandeur (paradoxical)
• A desolate area featuring makeshift dwellings of mud with tin and tarpaulin roofs
• Lacking basic amenities like sewage systems, proper drainage, and running water
• Home to 10,000 waste collectors who sustain themselves by scavenging through refuse
• Inhabiting this area without permits or formal identification for four decades, mastering the skill of waste collection
• They view garbage as a valuable resource, akin to gold.

Overview of Working Conditions at the Glass Bangle Factory and Associated Risks

• Artisans creating glass bangles endure extreme poverty and go to bed hungry.
• The alleys in their makeshift community reek of waste, with crumbling shacks lacking proper infrastructure, crowded with both people and animals.
• A large number of adults and tens of thousands of children are employed in sweltering furnaces in Firozabad.
• They labor extensively under unsafe and harmful circumstances.
• Consistently high temperatures, poor ventilation, and inadequate lighting are commonplace.
• Piles of bangles clutter the untidy yards, pushed by young boys through the narrow pathways of the settlement.
• Boys and girls work under dim, flickering oil lamps to connect circular glass pieces, adjusting their eyes more to the darkness than the light outside.
• Eye irritation from glass polishing dust negatively impacts them.
• Moneylenders, law enforcers, officials, and politicians all stand against them, ensnaring the impoverished bangle makers in a complex system.
• A lingering fear of mistreatment by the authorities plagues them.

Possible Hazards:

Accidents, vision impairment, burns, respiratory problems, physical and mental fatigue, developmental delays, poor health due to unsanitary conditions and limited airflow, genetic issues from exposure to chemicals.

READ THE QUESTIONS BELOW AND ANSWER THE EXTRACT BASED MCQ QUESTIONS:

Unaware of what his name represents, he roams the streets with his friends, an army of barefoot boys who appear like the morning birds and disappear at noon. Over the months, I have come to recognize each of them.

Question 1. What is the tone of the passage?
(a) Melancholic
(b) Joyful
(c) Sarcastic
(d) Angry
Answer: a. Melancholic

Question 2. How does the narrator's knowledge of Saheb-e-Alam's name affect their interactions?
(a) It deepens their bond
(b) It creates distance
(c) It causes conflict
(d) It leads to confusion
Answer: a. It deepens their bond

Question 3. Which literary device is most noticeable in the description of Saheb-e-Alam and his friends?
(a) Simile
(b) Metaphor
(c) Personification
(d) Hyperbole
Answer: a. Simile

Question 4. How does the setting contribute to the overall mood of the passage?
(a) It creates suspense
(b) It evokes nostalgia
(c) It enhances realism
(d) It conveys despair
Answer: d. It conveys despair

Practice questions

“I will learn to drive a car,” he answers, looking straight into my eyes. His dream looms like a mirage amidst the dust of streets that fill his town Firozabad, famous for its bangles. Every other family in Firozabad is engaged in making bangles. It is the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry where families have spent generations working around furnaces, wielding glass, making bangles for all the women in the land it seems. Mukesh’s family is among them. None of them know that it is illegal for children like him to work in the glass furnaces with high temperatures, in dingy cells without air and light; that the law, if enforced, could get him and all those 20,000 children out of the hot furnaces where they slog their daylight hours, often losing the brightness of their eyes. Mukesh’s eyes beam as he volunteers to take me home, which he proudly says is being rebuilt.

Question 1. The simile ‘dream looms like a mirage amidst the dust of streets’ indicates that his dream was
(a) a reality, yet seemed distant.
(b) lost in the sea of dust.
(c) illusory and indistinct.
(d) hanging in the dusty air.
Answer: c) illusory and indistinct.

Question 2. ‘I will learn to drive a car,’ he answers, looking straight into my eyes. This sentence highlights Mukesh was:
1. determined
2. fearless
3. hopeful
4. valiant
5. ambitious
6. stern
(a) 1 & 5
(b) 2 & 4
(c) 2 & 5
(d) 3 & 6
Answer: a) 1 & 5

Question 3. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE with reference to the extract?
(a) Children work in badly lit and poorly ventilated furnaces.
(b) The children are unaware that it is forbidden by law to work in the furnaces.
(c) Children toil in the furnaces for hours which affects their eyesight.
(d) Firozabad has emerged as a nascent producer of bangles in the country.
Answer: d) Firozabad has emerged as a nascent producer of bangles in the country.

Question 4. Every other family in Firozabad is engaged in making bangles indicates that
(a) bangle making is the only industry that flourishes in Firozabad.
(b) the entire population of Firozabad is involved in bangle making.
(c) majority of the population in Firozabad is involved in bangle making.
(d) bangle making is the most loved occupation in Firozabad.
Answer: c) majority of the population in Firozabad is involved in bangle making.

“She still has bangles on her wrist, but no light in her eyes. “Ek waqt ser bhar khana bhi nahin khaya.” she says, in a voice drained of joy. She has not enjoyed even one full meal in her entire lifetime—that’s what she has reaped! Her husband, an old man with a flowing beard says, “I know nothing except bangles. All I have done is make a house for the family to live in.” Hearing him one wonders if he has achieved what many have failed in their lifetime. He has a roof over his head! The cry of not having money to do anything except carry on the business of making bangles, not even enough to eat, rings in every home. The young men echo the lament of the elders. Little has moved with time, it seems in Firozabad, years of mind-numbing toil have killed all initiative and the ability to dream.”

Question 1. ‘She still has bangles on her wrist, but no light in her eyes.’ This implies that
(a) she is married but has lost the charm in her eyes.
(b) she is a married woman who has lost her grace and beauty.
(c) though she is married, her eyes are devoid of happiness.
(d) she is a married woman who has lost her eyesight.
Answer: c) though she is married, her eyes are devoid of happiness.

Question 2. ‘He has a roof over his head!’ The tone of the author is
(a) pessimistic.
(b) empathetic.
(c) sympathetic.
(d) optimistic.
Answer: b) empathetic.

Question 3. Choose the term which best matches the statement ‘The young men echo the lament of their elders.’
(a) acceptance
(b) reflection
(c) reiteration
(d) doubtfulness
Answer: c) reiteration

Question 4. ‘Years of mind-numbing toil have killed all initiative and the ability to dream’. This shows that
(a) the bangle makers are exhausted yet they are enterprising and have dreams.
(b) the drudgery of work has destroyed their willingness to improve their lot.
(c) the daily grind has stolen the dreams of the bangle makers and made them dull.
(d) the bangle makers have been working so hard that there’s no time to dream.
Answer: b) the drudgery of work has destroyed their willingness to improve their lot.

They have lived here for more than thirty years without an identity, without permits but with ration cards that get their names on voters’ lists and enable them to buy grain. Food is more important for survival than an identity. “If at the end of the day we can feed our families and go to bed without an aching stomach, we would rather live here than in the fields that gave us no grain,” say a group of women in tattered saris when I ask them why they left their beautiful land of green fields and rivers. Wherever they find food, they pitch their tents that become transit homes. Children grow up in them, becoming partners in survival. And survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking. Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of a fine art. Garbage to them is gold. It is their daily bread, a roof over their heads, even if it is a leaking roof. But for a child it is even more...

Question 1. How do children in Seemapuri contribute to survival?
(a) By attending school
(b) By participating in rag-picking
(c) By farming in green fields
(d) By working in factories
Answer: b. By participating in rag-picking

Question 2. What is described as a daily bread for the people in Seemapuri?
(a) Rice
(b) Garbage
(c) Vegetables
(d) Fruits
Answer: b. Garbage

Question 3. Where do the people in Seemapuri pitch their tents to create transit homes?
(a) In the fields with no grain
(b) Near green fields and rivers
(c) Near factories
(d) Wherever they find food
Answer: d. Wherever they find food

Question 4. What do the children in Seemapuri become as they grow up?
(a) Farmers
(b) Politicians
(c) Partners in survival
(d) Teachers
Answer: c. Partners in survival

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

Question Q1. What does the writer mean by saying that garbage holds different meaning for adults and children?
Answer: For elders – rag picking is a necessary evil and the only means of survival. Children look at it as a gold mine full of unexpected surprises. There is always the hope of finding a coin or a rupee while rummaging through the garbage, so it’s wrapped in wonder for them.

Question Q2. Why do you think Mukesh is content to dream of cars and doesn’t dream of flying a plane?
Answer: In Mukesh, we find a spark of motivation; he is ready to travel to a garage a long way from home. When asked if he ever dreams of flying an airplane, he seems embarrassed and remains silent. He is satisfied with the more tangible and attainable dream of fast-moving cars—something seen on a daily basis. Airplanes symbolize something distant, just like a far-fetched dream; people of Firozabad are not exposed to grand dreams like this.

LONG ANSWERS QUESTIONS

Question Q 1. Elucidate the significance of the title ‘The lost spring’
Answer:

• Title – metaphorical-talks of stealing something abstract and effervescent.
• Portrayal of the broken spirit of millions of children involved in child labour undergoing exploitation.
• Have lost the moment of spring in their life – the time of growth, limitless joy and rejuvenation – have turned adults before time, deprived of childhood.
• Author exposes a national shame through the portrayal of them – shows the dark side of progress.
• Society is apathetic – prefers to look away – those guilty include not only the employer but even the society and their own family.
• The writer grasps the heartstrings of the reader – reminds them of the onus of recapturing the spring from the lives of innumerable children in India.