Lost Spring |CLASS 12 ENGLISH
Stories of Stolen Childhood
Author Anees Jung
The following is an excerpt from her book titled Lost
Spring, Stories of Stolen Childhood.
Depicts :- POVERTY
EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN
NOTE MAKING
BY SIMRAN SAHNI
◇ ‘Sometimes I find a Rupee in the garbage’
AUTHOR FIRST MEETING WITH SAHEB
● WHY DO YOU DO THIS? Author asked SAHEB , A ragpicker boy
Who SCROUNGE GOLD IN GARBAGE
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SAHEB LEFT HOME DHAKA ,STORM DESTROYED FIELD ,
HOME
LOOKING FOR GOLD IN BIG CITY (SURVIVAL)
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Answer SAHEB I HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO DO
GO TO SCHOOL,SHE SAID & SHE Felt bad
THERE IS NO SCHOOL , I LL GO IF THEY WILL OPEN
AUTHOR SAID WILL YOU COME TO MY SCHOOL & SAHIB SAID YES
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AFTER FEW DAYS SAHEB IS YOUR SCHOOL READY ?
IT TAKES TIME SHE SAID & FELT BAD FOR MAKING FALSE PROMISE
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AFTER MONTHS SHE ASKED SAHEBS HIS NAME “Saheb-e-Alam,” he announces
(lord of the universe) HE DOESN'T KNOW THE MEANING
● SAHEB ROAM IN STREET WITH FRIENDS BAREFOOT BOYS ARMY
LIKE BIRDS FROM MORNING to NOON.
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ONE DAY SHE ASKED THEM “Why aren’t you wearing chappals?”
MY MOTHER DIDN'T BRING DOWN FROM SHELF ANOTHER BOY WHO IS
WEARING MISMATCHED SHOES SAID HE WILL THROW THEM,
Third boy I want shoes
WRITER HAS NOT SEEN CHILDREN BAREFOOT SINCE LONG TIME
It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot, is
one explanation. EXCUSE EXPLAIN POVERTY .
◇MAN FROM UDIPI
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Young boy prays to God for shoes ,in temple where his father was
priest.
30 YEARS LATER WHEN SHE WENT TO THAT PLACE
NEW PRIEST BACKYARD ,Young boy dressed in school uniform
was wearing shoes,wish granted but rag pickers still barefoot.
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◇VISIT TO SEEMAPURI
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Periphery of Delhi, Bangladesh migrants back in 1971.
HOUSES MUD ROOF TIN TARPAULIN NO SEWAGE, DRAINAGE,
RUNNING WATER LIVE 10,000 RAG PICKERS
LIVING THEIR FROM MORE than 30 YEARS WITHOUT
IDENTITY,PERMIT BUT WITH RATION CARDS , names on
VOTER LIST allows them to buy BUY GRAIN
◇FOOD IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN IDENTITY SAID A LADY
●
Children grow up in them,becoming partners in survival. And survival in Seemapuri
means rag-picking.
● RAGPICKING ART FOR THEM 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.
● SAHEB “I sometimes find a rupee, even a ten-rupee note,”
CHILDREN GARBAGE WRAPPED IN WONDERS PARENTS
SURVIVAL
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◇SAHEB AT TENNIS CLUB
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IN WINTER MORNING AUTHOR SAW SAHEB at the gate of the
club watching tennis .
HE LIKED THE GAME HE SAID , HE GOES INSIDE FOR
SWINGS GATEKEEPER ALLOWS HIM
SAHEB WAS WEARING A TENNIS SHOES WITH A SMALL
HOLE DISCARDED BY RICH BOY.
HE LIKED THE GAME
◇SAHEB WAS NO LONGER HIS MASTER
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ONE DAY SHE SAW SAHEB ON HIS WAY TO MILK BOOTH
Steel canister in his hands,DO YOU LIKE THE JOB SHE ASKED
HIS FACE LOST THE CAREFREE LOOK,steel canister seems heavier than the plastic
bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulder.
● The bag was his. The canister belongs to the man who
owns the tea shop. Saheb is no longer his own master!
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◇ PART 2
I want to drive a car”
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MUKESH Announces “I will be a motor mechanic,”
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“Do you know anything about cars?” I ask.
“I will learn to drive a car,”HE SAID WITH CONFIDENCE LOOKING IN HER EYES
● DREAM LIKE A MIRAGE IN DESSERT
LIKE DUSTY STREETS OF FIROZABAD
FIROZABAD FAMOUS GLASS BANGLES
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GLASS BANGLES FACTORIES MANY CENTURIES FAMILIES WORK Welding glass in
furnaces
◇ MUKESH FAMILY AND OTHERS
DON'T KNOW ITS ILLEGAL
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To work in bangle factories furnaces with high temperatures, in dingy cells without airand
light
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LAW IF IMPLEMENT WILL TAKE OUT 20,000 CHILDREN WHO ARE
DESTROYING THEIR CHILDHOOD AND EYESIGHT AUTHOR AT
MUKESH’S HOUSE .
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VISIT TO MUKESH HOUSE
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HE PROUDLY SAID HIS HOUSE IS BEING REBUILT
WALKED DOWN LANES CHOKED WITH GARBAGE
CRUMBLING WALL WOBBLY DOORS NO WINDOWS
MUKESH HOUSE DOOR IRON,WOBBLY
HALF BUILT Shack One part grass ,firewood stove
vessel of spinach leaves ,plate chopped vegetables
Mukesh Family
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Young women cook meal for family
Wife Mukesh brother bahu, the daughter-in-law of the
house, already in charge of three men — her husband,
Mukesh and their father. WHEN MUKESH FATHER ENTER,she hid her face behind the
veil.
Mukesh father NTailor,bangle maker failed to renovate a house,or educate his sons,only
taught them to to make bangles.
MUKESH GRANDMOTHER “It is his karam, his destiny,“Can a
god-given lineage ever be broken?”
EVERY HOUSE HAS bangles — sunny gold, paddy green, royal
blue, pink, purple,bangles made to be sold in town on carts
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SAVITA A YOUNG GIRL
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DARK HUT ,sits with older women soldering pieces of
glass. Hands working like machine
Savita little girl DIDN'T KNEW IMPORTANCE OF
BANGLES Indian woman’s suhaag, auspiciousness in
marriage.
● ELDER LADY SAID “Ek waqt ser bhar khana bhi
nahin khaya,” in a drained voice. Husband: “I know nothing except
bangles.
● All I have done is make a house for the family to live in.”
THIS WAS THE CRY OF NOT HAVING MONEY TO DO
ANYTHING ELSE AND CARRY ON BANGLES MAKING.
.
● Years of mind-numbing toil have killed all
initiative and the ability to dream.
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AUTHOR WITH A GROUP OF YOUNG MEN
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“Why not organize yourselves into a cooperative?”
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“Even if we get organized, we are the ones who will be
hauled up by the police, beaten and dragged to jail for
doing something illegal,”
● SAHEB:- Two different world caught in a web of poverty,
burdened by the stigma of caste in which they are
born;
● MUKESH:- the other a vicious circle of the sahukars, the middlemen,
the policemen, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and
the politicians.
● Together they have imposed the baggage
on the child that he cannot put down.
◇CHILDREN HERE ACCEPTS NATURALLY AS THEIR FATHER
● BUT MUKESH WAS DIFFERENT
“I want to be a motor mechanic,’ he repeats.
● He will go to a garage and learn. But the garage is a long way
from his home. “I will walk,” insists. “Do you also dream of
flying a plane?He is suddenly silent. “No,” he says, staring at
the ground. In his small murmur there is an embarrassment that has
not yet turned into regret.
● He is content to dream of carsthat he sees hurtling down the
streets of his town. Few airplanes fly over Firozabad.
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