The Lost Spring, a piece by
Anees Jung highlights the plight of child rag-pickers and children working in the
bangle making industry in India and it is a lesson in the English Textbook at the grade twelve level. It makes sense for more affluent students to read this lesson because it describes the plight of children whose childhood has been snatched away from them.
Unfortunately, the greatest tragedy is that these people are
not able to emancipate themselves even if they want to! This is because years of 'mind-numbing toil' in dingy hutments have robbed them of the will to strive for a better life. They have become literally zombified, have been forced to accept their circumstances as a gift of destiny, a 'god-given lineage' that none can dare to break.
When Anees asks a group
of young men, bangle makers in Firozabad why they don’t organise themselves “into
a cooperative”, their answer is that “Even if (they) get organised, (they) are
the ones who will be hauled up by the police, beaten and dragged to jail for
doing something illegal”. So, it is evident that there are vested interests that don't want child labour to be abolished in the country.
Children like
Saheb and Mukesh are stuck between two worlds, a world of superstition, dead
rituals, orthodox beliefs, and the conviction that one is born into a caste -
in this case, Mukesh is born into a caste of bangle makers, therefore it is “his
Karam, his destiny” to be a bangle-maker. To even think of breaking out of this
“god-given lineage” is unthinkable according to Mukesh’s grandmother. Mukesh
has a dream, a dream of becoming a motor mechanic, but then one wonders if society will ever allow him to change his profession. Bangle making is a child
intensive industry and it is clear that laws are doing little to address this
problem. In many cases, it is a lack of will to implement laws, that prevents the
eradication of child labour, in others, it is about lack of knowledge about this
social evil. Apathy towards the problem of child labour, procrastination, the
presence of greedy middlemen, commission agents and politicians are a few
other reasons why child labour continues to exist in our society today!
The title of the lesson, “Lost
Spring” is evocative of a major social evil that abounds in our
society even today. It suggests lost opportunities, lost innocence, lost
happiness, and lost hope. In a nutshell, it spells out how poverty has robbed
children of their childhood. In some cases, there are natural forces that
conspire to keep people and children in a state of perpetual poverty. In the
case of Saheb, it was because of “the many storms that swept away their
fields and homes” that forced his family and him to migrate to “the big city”
in search of “gold”. In India, we have come across people who
have left their homes, and often happy lives to join the film industry in
Mumbai. Many were left destitute as their dreams for a better life soured in no
time. Rag pickers like Saheb might scrounge for gold in the garbage bins but
the only gold they might recover could be limited to a ten-rupee note! In Saheb's case, it was a matter of survival, fleeing from a natural calamity that had destroyed their lives.
That poverty breeds even more
poverty can be inferred from a case study of rag pickers all over the country.
What begins as a game of scrounging in garbage bins, (that proves exciting when they get a ten-rupee note) soon becomes a harsh struggle for survival as children born in
rag-pickers families become “partners in survival”! Hard though it may seem,
these children soon grow into their profession and they begin to find some kind
of comfort in their profession. Thus, for Saheb, rag-picking was an easier task
than working at the tea stall because according to Anees, “The steel canister
seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly….The bag was his.
The canister belongs to the man who owns the tea shop.”
The “rags to riches” story does
not work for children like Saheb, or even Mukesh! Films like Slumdog Millionaire
might romanticise poverty and the abrupt turn of fortune, but the reality is
worse. Poverty is a vicious circle, a whirlpool that sucks in hapless victims
and never lets them go! In many ways, I would say that Lost Spring is a rather
disturbing lesson that brings out the tragedy called child labour. This is
surely a lesson that disrupts our sense of security and forces us to step out
of our comfort zone. Lack of education and unemployment are some of the factors that indeed conspire to force children into child labour. The other factors stem from these two factors. Lack of awareness, natural calamities, apathy, poor enforcement of laws, rules and regulation, and of course lack of will are all extenuating factors. The question of education does come in the story when without thinking, the narrator asks him if he would like to join school if she opened one and readily replies, "Yes" with a smile. Unfortunately, this was quite like the promises that are made and broken at will in his world. Yes, there are not enough schools to accommodate slum children, but then one wonders if only opening schools would solve the problem of child labour. Stephen Spender very clearly hints that one cannot educate a child who has an empty stomach in his poem, An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum!
1. Travelling across the country I have seen children walking barefoot, in cities, on village roads. It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot, is one explanation. I wonder if this is only an excuse to explain away a perpetual state of poverty. Page 14.
(i) Which of the following is the best figure of speech for footwear according to the extract?
a) Footwear is a metaphor for prosperity.
b) Staying barefoot is a symbol of poverty.
c) Both a) and b) are correct.
d) None of the above is correct.
(ii) State whether the following statement is TRUE or FALSE.
Anees Jung believes that children walk barefoot because it is a tradition.
(iii) Fill in the blank with the correct inference.
Anees Jung believes that staying barefoot is merely an excuse for_____________.
(iv) What best describes Anees Jung?
a) She is an author.
b) She is a social activist.
c) Both a) and b) are correct
d) She is a tourist
2. ' My acquaintance... more.'
Page15
(i) Explain the expression, 'Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it'.
(ii) Where have the residents come from?
(iii) Why are they given ration cards?
(iv) Transit homes can best be described as a metaphor for
a) tents
b) lack of stability
c) caravans
d) homes
(v) Who are 'partners in survival'? How?
(vi) Why is garbage 'even more' for a child?
3. 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, I wonder if she knows the sanctity of the bangles she helps make. It symbolises an Indian woman's suhaag, auspiciousness in marriage. It will dawn on her suddenly one day when her head is draped with a red veil, her hands dyed red with henna, and red bangles rolled onto her wrists.
i) Who is Savita?
ii) The term, 'her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine' is ___________
a) an alliteration that suggests mindless toil
b) a simile that compares her task with mindless toil
c) a metaphor that compares her work with the tongs of a machine
d) an image that suggests endless toil
iii) What are the different connotations that the bangles have for Savita and a normal Indian woman?
a) For Savita, the bangles symbolize a profession and auspiciousness in marriage for other women.
b) For Savita, they are symbols of oppression, while for normal women, they symbolise auspiciousness in marriage.
c) For both Savita and other women, they symbolize auspiciousness in marriage.
d) None of the above is correct.
(iv) State whether the following statement is TRUE or FALSE
Savita is an example of what can go wrong when children are forced to work
(v) Explain the expression, 'She still has bangles on her wrist, but no light in her eyes'.
(vi) How will Savita be like the old woman?
4. Listening to them, I see two distinct worlds- one of the family caught in a web of poverty burdened by the stigma of caste in which they are born; the other a vicious circle of the sauhukars, the middlemen, the policemen.
i) What are the two distinct worlds?
ii) Why are they not able to organize themselves into a cooperative?
iii) Who are the stakeholders who prevent them from emancipating themselves?
iv) what is the role of corruption in this matter?
v) What role do fatalism and superstition have to play in this matter?
vi) What can the bangle makers do to emancipate themselves?
5. "It is his karma, his destiny," says Mukesh's grandmother, who has watched her own husband go blind with the dust from polishing the glass of bangles. "Can a god-given lineage ever be broken?" she implies. Born in the caste of bangle-makers, they have seen nothing but bangles'.
i) The belief in Karma or Destiny suggests that the bangle makers are bound by a belief in
a) Superstitious beliefs in fatalism and destiny.
b) Dead rituals and beliefs.
c) Fear in breaking customs, traditions and beliefs.
d) All of the above are correct.
ii) State whether the statement given below is TRUE or FALSE.
Casteism is based on the belief that a god-given lineage cannot be broken.
iii) Most of the people working in the bangle-making industry will go blind because of:
a) the dust from polishing the glass
b) the noxious fumes in the dingy cells
c) the dim light in the dingy cells
d) both a) and c) are correct
Important Short answer questions
1. What is the moral of the story of the man from Udipi?
2. What are Saheb's aspirations?
3. Is Saheb happy working at the tea stall?
3. Describe the living conditions of the rag-pickers of Seemapuri.
4. What does Mukesh aspire to be as a grown-up?
5. Describe the living conditions of the bangle-makers of Firozabad.
6. Describe the metaphor of the airplanes.
7. Describe the two worlds within which the bangle makers of Firozabad are stuck.
Long answer questions and competency-based questions
1. Write an article on the hazards of rag picking and working in the bangle industry
2. You are Saheb, write a diary entry for a day of work at the tea stall.
3. You are Anees Jung. Write a letter to your sister describing the living conditions of people living in Seemapuri.
4. You are a newspaper reporter from an English Daily. Draft an interview that you took with Anees Jung regarding the plight of the bangle makers of Firozabad. You can do this as a class activity.
Reference:
Flamingo: Textbook for class XII
(Core Course)
Lost Spring
(Stories of Stolen Childhood by Anees Jung)
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