NCERT Solutions CBSE Class 12th Flamingo Lost Spring Chapter 2 Summary, Explanation, Solution - Question & Answers
Summary of Lost Spring
The first part tells the author's thoughts about the life of poor rag pickers. The rag pickers have come from Dhaka. Apart from this, there is a colony of rag pickers in Seemapuri area. The storm has destroyed their fields and houses. They had come to the big city hoping to live there. However, the reality was really painful for him and he had to face many difficulties. They are certainly poor and lack various resources. The author sees Saheb scouring the neighbourhood for "gold" every morning. Garbage is the means of livelihood of these rag pickers. Besides, for children, it is a wondrous thing. Children can take out one or two coins from it. These people have ambitions and desires. The problem is that they do not know how to make them possible There are many things that they are not able to reach. Later Saheb joins a tea shop where there is a possibility for him to earn Rs.800 and to have all the food. However, this job deprived him of his independence. In such a situation, their condition is very disappointing and full of sorrow. The second part traces the life of Mukesh. Mukesh is a boy who belongs to a family of bangle makers. Firozabad is famous for its wonderful glass-blowing industry. About 20,000 children are engaged in this particular occupation. Furthermore, no one there understands or respects the law that prohibits child labor. Furthermore, both the living conditions, as well as the working environment, are terrible.
These children live in lonely cells. Also, they work near hot furnaces. This is of course very dangerous as it renders these children blind when they enter adulthood. In addition, these children also have to deal with the pressure of debt.
Furthermore, they are unable to think of a solution to this problem. There is no way for these children to get out of this trap.
Policemen, bureaucrats, middlemen and politicians will all come in the way of their progress. The women of the house consider it as their luck or fortune. As a result of such thinking, they simply follow the established tradition. Mukesh's talk is something else. He is not like the rest of the people out there. That's because Mukesh has big dreams. He aspires to become a motor mechanic in the future. The garage is far from where he lives but he is determined to keep going.
Summary of Lost Spring in Hindi
Main characters in this story
SAHEB (ragpicker)
Actual name-Saheb-e-Alam.
He is Ragpicker in Seemapuri.
His family left Bangladesh as their homes were swept away due to floods
They move tfrom Bangladesh for find a good place.
Walks on Bare Feet.
MUKESH (Bangle maker)
A bangle maker
Lives in Firozabad
Belong to a family of Bangle makers
Saheb's story
Sometimes I find a Rupee in the garbage’
The author encounter with a boy name saheb-e-Alam who visits every morning nearby garbage dumps to find valuable thing in garbage when she asked to saheb what are you doing? He said scrounging(छानबीन) gold in garbage.
They do not have any work to do so they started the work of ragpicker for their livelihood. Writer suggested him to go to school but he said there is no school in my neighbourhood. When they build it I will go.
She made a false Promise that she would start a school soon thereafter he could come there.
The writer can feel the irony to see Saheb whose name means the ruler of Earth, lose the spark of childhood and roams (इधर-उधर भटकना) barefooted with his friends.
When Writer asked them why they weren't wearing chappals , one child said It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot, is one explanation. She wonders if this is only an excuse to explain away a perpetual(लगातार) state of poverty.
She remembered a story a man from Udipi once told me. As a young boy he would go to school past an old temple, where his father was a priest (पुजारी). He would stop briefly at the temple and pray for a pair of shoes.
Thirty years later She visited his town and the temple. A young boy dressed in a grey uniform, wearing socks and shoes, arrived panting and threw his school bag on a folding bed. Looking at the boy, she remembered the prayer another boy had made to the goddess when he had finally got a pair of shoes, “Let me never lose them.” The goddess had granted his prayer. Young boys like the son of the priest now wore shoes. But many other rag pickers in her neighbourhood remain shoeless.
Ragpicker’s place-Seemapuri
Seemapuri is a place on the periphery of Delhi, yet miles away from it. They are all Bangladeshi refugees who came here back in 1971. They live in very poor conditions in mud structures with roofs of tin and tarpaulin.(Sackcloth)
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.
Winter morning
One winter morning I see Saheb standing by the fenced gate of the neighbourhood club, watching two young men dressed in white, playing tennis.
“I like the game,” The author notices that Saheb is wearing tennis shoes. Saheb tells her that someone gave them to him. The fact that some rich boy discarded(throw away) the shoes because there was a hole in one of them does not bother him. For Saheb, who has walked his whole life barefoot, it is like a dream come true.
Saheb no longer is own master
One morning the author sees Saheb on his way to the milk booth. He is carrying a steel canister. He informs the author that now he works at the tea stall and is paid X 800 and all his meals. But the author feels that Saheb is not happy. His face has lost its carefree look. The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag. The bag was his, but the canister belongs to the owner of the tea stall. Saheb is no longer his own master.
Mukesh story
“I want to drive a car”
Mukesh insists on being his own master. “I will be a motor mechanic,” he announces.Author asked, Do you know anything about cars? “I will learn to drive a car,” he answers, looking straight into her eyes. His dream looms like a mirage(unrealistic) amidst the dust of streets that fill his town Firozabad.
Firozabad, famous for its bangles It is the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry where families have spent generations working around furnaces, 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
All those 20,000 children out of the hot furnaces where they slog their daylight hours, often losing the brightness of their eyes.their houses are not good it have wobbly(unstable) doors, no windows,crowded with families of humans and animals.
We enter a half-built shack. In one part of it, thatched with dead grass, is a firewood stove over which sits a large vessel of sizzling(बहुत गरम) spinach leaves. On the ground, in large aluminium platters, are more chopped vegetables. A frail(weak) young woman cooking an evening meal for her family is the wife of Mukesh's elder brother and in charge of all three men. Her husband, Mukesh and their father.
When the older man enters, she gently withdraws(out) behind the broken wall and brings her veil(घूंघट) closer to her face
first as a tailor, then a bangle maker, he has failed to renovate a house, send his two sons to school. l. All he has managed to do is teach them what he knows — the art of making bangles. “It is his karam, his destiny,” says Mukesh’s grandmother, who has watched her own husband go blind with the dust from polishing the glass of bangles.
Savita a young girl
Savita, a young girl in a drab pink dress, sits alongside an elderly woman, soldering pieces of glass. As her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine.It symbolises an Indian woman’s suhaag,
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 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.”
The author asks a group of young men to organise themselves in a cooperative. She learns the horrific truth that even if they get organised, they are taken to jail for doing something illegal and are beaten up. There is no leader among them.
A ray of hope
The author is filled with joy when she finds that Mukesh thinks differently. The boy is filled with hope. His dream of being a motor-mechanic is still alive in his eyes.
He is willing to dare. Anees asks Mukesh if he also dreams of flying a plane. Mukesh replies in the negative. He is content to dream of cars, as few planes fly over Firozabad.
Lost Spring Question & Answers
Short Questions - The Lost Spring
Answer:
The explanation the author offers for children was It is not a lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot, this is one explanation she wonders not to be republished if this is only an excuse to explain away a perpetual state of poverty. She remembers a story of a man from Udipi who once told her. As a young boy, he would go to school past an old temple, where his father was a priest. He would stop briefly at the temple and pray for a pair of shoes.
Q3. Is Saheb happy working at the tea-stall? Explain.
Answer:
No, Saheb is not happy working at the tea shop. He is no longer his master. The carefree look has disappeared from his face. The steel canister feels heavier than the plastic bag which he carries so lightly on his shoulder. The bag was his but the canister belongs to the man who owns the tea shop.
Q4. What makes the city of Firozabad famous?
Answer:
Firozabad is famous for 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, welding glass, making bangles for all the women in the land it seems.
Q5. Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry?
Answer:
Bangles were manufactured in glass furnaces in dingy cells with high temperatures without air and light, hot furnaces where they slog their daylight hours, often losing the brightness of their eyes.
Q6. How is Mukesh’s attitude to his situation different from that of his family?Answer:Mukesh's grandmother thinks that the God-given lineage can never be broken. Her sons and grandsons are born into the caste of bangle makers. He has seen nothing but bangles. Mukesh's father has taught him what he knows - the art of bangle-making. But Mukesh wants to become a motor mechanic. He will go to a garage and learn, although the garage is far away from his house.
Q7. What could be some of the reasons for the migration of people from villages to cities?Answer:
People migrate from villages to cities in search of livelihood. Their farms fail to provide them with the means to survive. Cities provide employment, jobs or other means of obtaining food. In the case of the poor, the problem is to feed the hungry members. Survival is the primary concern.
