LOST SPRING ADDITIONAL, PREVIOUS YEARS QUESTIONS-CLASS XII ENGLISH CBSE
LOST SPRING- SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
Q1 How did Saheb manage to embarrass the author?
Ans. The author like many others who gave hollow advice had told Saheb to attend school, only to be informed that there was no school in his locality. She jokingly enquired whether he would enroll in her school if she happened to open one. Saheb happily agreed and a few days later when he met the author he enquired about the school. The author was embarrassed because the promise was not meant to be fulfilled.
Q2 What prompted the author to remark that promises like
the one she made abound in every corner of Saheb’s bleak world?
Ans. The author had promised to open a school in which Saheb could study but had no intention of doing so. She says that hollow promises like hers guaranteeing a better life were made to the deprived section of the society all the time but were never fulfilled
Q3 What was the full name of Saheb. Describe the irony of
his fate?
Ans. The meaning of Saheb’s name is ‘Lord of the
Universe’, but he is poverty stricken, barefoot and homeless.
He is rag-picker who gets up early in the morning, rushes barefoot to garbage bins and scrounges the garbage dumps of Delhi to have his bread.
Q4. What is the significance of the story
from Udipi?
The story of Udipi is told to present the contrast between Udipi and Seemapuri. Udipi showed signs of progress and development with passage of time. On the other hand Seemapuri is underdeveloped even after no. of years. The place is devoid of basic amenities and children still walk barefoot searching for valuables in garbage.
Q5. Why do the rag pickers have ration permits but no identity ?
(can vote , get food at subsidized rates)
Q6 ‘Garbage to them is gold.’ Why does the author say so
about the rag-pickers?
Rag picking is the means of survival for the ragpickers. According to the author, it is their “daily bread, a roof over their heads, even if it is a leaking roof”. Thus, it is equivalent to gold for them. Besides, for the children it is “wrapped in wonder”; for they, at times, chance upon “a rupee, even a ten-rupee.”
Q7 Why does the author say that Seemapuri in spite of
being on the periphery of Delhi was miles away from it?
Ans. The author remarks so to highlight the economic disparity between the people of Delhi and the rag pickers of Seemapuri. The opulence of Delhi is in no way related to the dire poverty of the residents of Seemapuri.(describe the life of people in Seemapuri)
Q8“Survival in Seemapuri means rag picking” What does the
narrator mean by this statement?
The narrator wants to say that Seemapuri people have got only an art of rag picking with them. They can only depend on it for their survival. More than 10000 rag pickers live there and earn through the same profession.
Q9 Through the years rag picking has acquired the
‘proportion of a fine art’ in Seemapuri. Justify the statement.
Ans.. The means of survival of migrants of Bangladesh in
Seemapuri is rag picking. Garbage to them is gold. Like a fine art that has no
end in appealing the sense of beauty the rag picker’s scrounging the garbage is
a never ending process which provides them their daily bread day after day.
Ans. For adults rag picking was only a means of survival but for children a lot of excitement was associated with the same for they often found unexpected things as a ten rupee note in the same. There was always a hope of coming across unexpected surprises and so garbage was wrapped in wonder for them.
Q11 How has “a dream come true “ for Saheb but what is “out
of his reach”?
(got a pair of shoes, playing tennis was out of his reach)
Q12 How does
Mukesh’s grandmother view the family occupation of bangle making and its
poverty?
Ans. Mukesh’s grandmother views bangle making as the destiny of her family. Her husband’s blindness, their misfortune and impoverished condition, she feels, are ordained by destiny. Years of suffering makes her accept everything in the name of karma or fate.
Q13. What contrast do you notice between the colours of
the bangles and the atmosphere of the place where these bangles are made?
The bangles made in Firozabad are of every hue (colour) born out of the rainbow. They are sunny, gold, paddy green, royal blue, pink and purple. While the boys and girls work in dark dingy huts next to the flames of oil lamps around the high heat of the furnaces, blowing glass, welding and soldering it to make bangles.
Q14.The bangle makers are ignorant of something. What is
it? What would happen if law were enforced strictly?
The bangle-makers are unaware of the fact that child
labour is illegal and has been banned by law. The industry is hazardous to
their health. Many children become blind before reaching their adulthood. If
the law were enforced strictly, 20000 children would be released from working
hard throughout the day at hot furnaces with high temperatures.
Savita is a young girl. She is wearing a drab pink dress. She is soldering pieces of glass. Her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine. She is very efficient in her work. She is referred to as innocent as does not understand the sanctity of the bangles that she is making.
Q16 Why did not the bangle makers organize themselves
into a co-operative?
Banglemakers did not do so because if they tried to get organized they would be beaten up by the police and dragged to jail for doing something illegal. They had no leader who could show them the way.
Q17 What are the two worlds that the author talks about?
The first one was that of the families of the bangle makers, caught in a web of poverty and burdened by the stigma of the caste to which they belonged. The second one was that of a vicious circle of sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and the politicians.
Q18. How is Mukesh different from Saheb?
Ans. Saheb sacrificed his freedom when he took job at the tea stall but Mukesh insisted on being his own master. Though Saheb wanted to study but he was not ready to make effort to get educated, rather he accepted his fate. On the other hand Mukesh was determined to become motor mechanic and was ready to make every possible effort to accomplish his dreams.
Q19. In spite of despair and disease pervading the lives
of the slum children, they are not devoid of hope. How far do you agree?
Answer. In spite of growing up amidst despair and
disease, children who live in the slum have the desire to achieve something big
in life. Saheb, a ragpicker, is eager to go to a school and learn. Mukesh
dreams of becoming a motor mechanic, which is very much against his family
tradition.
The bangle makers in Firozabad are exploited at the hands
of the Sahukars, middlemen, policemen, law makers, bureaucrats and politicians.
They toil day and night, but are not paid appropriate wages and are steeped in
poverty. They cannot form cooperatives for their betterment. Moreover, their
children are also compelled to join the same trade at an early age and cannot
dare to take up any other profession.
LOST SPRING-LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS
Q1 ‘Lost Spring’, is a sad commentary on the political
system of our country that condemns thousands of people to a life of abject
poverty. Comment.
Saheb, optimistic and enthusiastic—prospect of finding
gold in garbage—likes going to school but no opportunity—freedom and joy of
childhood to burdens of job at tea-stall.
Mukesh, born at Firozabad (bangle maker)—works under inhuman condition—dark room, hot furnaces—caught in web of poverty—vicious circle of sahukars, policemen, politicians, bureaucrats and moneylenders—resigned to fate—unaware of child labour act—stifled initiation and hope—lose eyesight before becoming adults
Q2 How is the line ‘few airplanes fly over Firozabad’
symbolically significant?
·
The author finds a spark of motivation in
Mukesh who is quite determined about realizing his dream of becoming a motor
mechanic.
·
He is ready to walk to a garage far from his
home
·
The author asks if he ever dreams of flying a
plane- the question embarrasses him and Mukesh replies in the negative
·
He is satisfied with the more tangible and
attainable dream related to the fast moving cars that he saw on the streets
each day
·
Airplanes symbolize something distant, just
like a far-fetched dream –people of Firozabad were not exposed to grand dreams
like that.
Value Points:
• Bangle makers born in poverty, live in poverty, die in
poverty.
• For generations people have been engaged in this trade.
• Work in inhuman conditions.
• Although they work hard but the profit is meagre.
• Their hovels have crumbling walls, wobbly doors and no
windows.
• They are overcrowded with humans and animals.
• Social customs, traditions, stigma of caste and people
in authority combine so that
they remain poor and uneducated
• Money lenders, middlemen, politicians and policemen are
all against them.
• Unable to organize themselves into a co-operative due
to lack of a leader.
• They have lost the ability to dream.
• They can only talk but not act to improve their lot
Value points
--- utter poverty generation after generation
-----believe they are destined to work in bangle
factories
----make beautiful bangles but live in dark
-----bright furnaces to do welding
----they lose their eyesight
----victims of vicious circle of middlemen
---law enforcing authorities prey upon them
--- bleak future
Most of the people like Saheb-e-Alam settled in Seemapuri
were refugees from Bangladesh who had fled their country and migrated to Delhi
from Dhaka. Their dwellings were structures of mud, tin and tarpaulin with no
sewage, drainage or running water. Picking garbage and rags helped them to earn
their daily bread, gave them a roof over their heads and was their only means
of livelihood and survival. Though these squatters of Seemapuri have no
identity but they do have valid ration cards that enable them to buy grain.
Children here grow up to become partners in survival to
their parents. An army of barefoot children appears every morning, carrying
their plastic bags on their shoulders and disappear by noon. They are forced to
live a life of abject poverty that results in the loss of childhood innocence.
Saheb, a ragpicker, roamed in the streets, scrounging for
garbage, barefoot and deprived of education. Later he starts working in a tea
stall but he loses his freedom and carefree life as he is no longer his own
master.
Q6. Explain the significance of title ‘Lost Spring’.
Ans: In this lesson, the author Anees Jung examines and
analyses the grinding poverty and tradition that condemn children to a life of
exploitation.
Saheb as a
ragpicker whose parents have left behind a life of abject poverty in
Bangladesh. His family, like the many other families of rag pickers lives in
Seemapuri. They live in miserable condition. The writer is pained to see Saheb,
whose name means the ruler of the Earth, lose the spark of childhood. She then
proceeds to tell about Mukesh who does want to be his own master. Hailing from
Firozabad, the centre of India’s bangle making and glass blowing industry, he
has always worked in the glass making factory. His family does not know that it
is illegal for children to work in such close to furnaces with such high
temperatures. They are exposed to various health hazards like losing their
eyesight as they work in dark and dingy cells. The family of bangle maker of
Firozabad are so burdened that they have lost their ability to dream. The
writer’s observation is that these poor hopeless people are but pawn in the
games that are played by Sahukars, middlemen, the policemen, the bureaucrats
and the politicians.
The title is meaningful as they lost their spring (childhood).
The writer has beautifully essayed the story of stolen childhood with a view to
sensitizing us to the plight of these poor unfortunate children.
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