LOST SPRING

ANEES
1. How are Saheb and Mukesh different from each other?
2. Give a brief account of life and activities of the people like Saheb-e Alam settled in
Seemapuri:
3. Describe the circumstances which keep the workers in the bangle making industry in
poverty:
4. The bangle makers of Firozabad make beautiful bangles and make everyone happy
but they live and die in poverty. Discuss:
5. 'Lost Spring' explains the grinding poverty and traditions that condemn people to a
life of object poverty- Explain.
6. Garbage to them is gold. How do rag pickers of Seemapuri survive :
7. Comment on the irony of the name Saheb-e Alam:
ANSWERS
1. The story 'Lost Spring' is on the unfortunate predicament of downtrodden people and
here Saheb and Mukesh are representative of them who are born to suffer, who are
born to sacrifice.
Saheb and Mukesh are different from each other though their lives are equally dark
and pale. Saheb is content with just managing to survive whereas Mukesh dares to
dream of making in a better profession as a motor mechanic.
When Saheb started working in a tea stall, he was satisfied as at least that life was
better than his previous life as a rag picker. He doesn't expect any better life but
Mukesh wants to change his hereditary profession, he hopes for a bright tomorrow.
2. Seemapuri is not any imaginative place, this is a true representative of slum areas in
India. This place is situated on the periphery of Delhi. Most of the residents of
Seemapuri are refugees from Bnagladesh. Saheb's family also stay there. The area
consists of mud structures with roof of tin and tarpaulin. There is no proper drainage or
sewage system. People live with animals there. This place is home to more than 10,000
other shoeless rag pickers like Saheb as survival in Seemapuri means rag picking. Over
the years, rag picking has become an art. it is their only support of income.
3. The story 'Lost Spring' provides a vivid and clean vistas of lives of the workers in the
bangle industry in poverty. The bangle makers of Firozabad are exposed to multiple
health hazards while working. Many of the children work near hot furnaces during
daylight and invites untimely blindness in their lives. Even the work breaks their spirit
and they don't dare to think about any other profession. They are the dwellers of dark
and pale world of garbage. They live in a home with crumbling walls, wobbly doors, no
 window and allthe families are over crowded. Even they are not fortunate enough to
enjoy one full meal in their entire life time because of their poverty. Disease, endless
suffering and tireless striving -this is their life. Day comes, day goes away, they remain
same.

4. Firozabad is the centre of India's glass blowing industry. Families have spent
generations in their business. Generation after generation, these bangle makers teach
weaving colorfuldreams to the people across the nation. But unfortunately in their
lives only, there is no colour, no brightness, their life is in the midst of filth and misery.
People work round the clock in glass furnaces at high temperature which bring
untimely blindness in the lives of many children. They live in dingy garbage. In such
conditions, families of humans andanimals stay together.
5. There is no doubt that 'Lost Spring' vividly describes grinding poverty and how more
than ten thousand people suffer due to it.
The story starts with the pale, dark and hopeless lives of the rag pickers and it
concludes with the lives of the equally unfortunate bangle makers. The story shows
how the poor and unfortunate slum children are forced to live in slum and do rag
picking with the expectation of getting something precious out of it.
Again in the second part we see the lives of bangle makers at Firozabad. Here, we see
equal helplessness where the children sacrifice eyesight by working near furnaces
throughout the day. We see a vivid descriptions of colorless lives of bangle makers who
add colour to lives of women.
6. Answer of q. no-2
Here children like Saheb and his friends are engaged to earn livelihood in garbage,
where they look for unexpected 'treasure' or 'gold that can change their lives for some
moments.
Thus, their survival means suffering, pain and agony.
7. The name of the protagonist of the first part of the story Lost Spring' is Saheb-e-Alam
which means in English Lord of the universe. But unfortunately the story offers a
striking contrast to the life of the protagonist. In the story , Saheb is a barefooted rag
picker whose life starts and ends at the same point i.e searching for precious things
(gold) in the garbage with the hope to change his life for some moments. the child never
knew and never wanted to know the meaning of his name, rather, remains busy in his
universe-garbage. This is the story not of a single Saheb, here he represents many
unfortunate Sahebs who never know the meaning of childhood, rather before realizing
the meaning of childhood, the childhood loses its validity and true meaning.