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Class 12 - English Notes
Book Name - Flamingo
Chapter – 2
The Lost Spring (Stories of Stolen Childhood)
• Title Analysis
• Theme
• Summary
• Important Questions with Answers

THE LOST SPRING
- Anees Jung
Title Analysis
“The Lost Spring” by Anees Jung consists of two stories of two different children, Saheb and
Mukesh
...
Anees Jung is an Indian writer and “The Lost spring” is an excerpt from her book titled
Lost Spring, Stories of Stolen Childhood
...

Theme
The author had attempted to centralize the attention of the readers to the miserable condition of
many children like Saheb and Mukesh, who are forced to work right from childhood in order to
survive
...
Their lives are miserable because their
profession does not provide a good livelihood and harms them physically too
...

Summary
The author Anees Jung has described her two encounters with the children from underprivileged
background
...
She has also highlighted the
emotionlessness of society towards the sufferings of the underprivileged children
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Garbage- searching is source of survival for
the families living in Seemapuri
...
They hunted through the garbage heaps looking
for things which could partially fulfil their unfulfilled dreams, things like identity, education, shoes and
sports are their unfulfilled dreams
...
He was happy that he had got a job at a tea stall and he would get eight hundred
rupees and all the meals
...

The second boy was Mukesh who belonged to a family of bangle makers in Firozabad
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His family was traditionally engaged in bangle making, although
the profession harmed them physically and they hardly earned any money out of it
...
The family elders
were satisfied that beside teaching the art of bangle–making to their children, they had been able to
build them a house to live in
...
Cars were all that Mukesh had
seen on the roads of his town and so, he could not dream any further
...
According to him storms had destroyed their homes and
fields in Bangladesh, so they shifted to the cities in search of ‘gold’
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False Promise

Once the author suggested Saheb to go to school
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The writer asked him jokingly that if she opened a school would he attend it
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After a few days, he ran up to her to asked whether her
school was ready
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She felt ashamed
of herself as she never intended to open a school
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He was surrounded by such false promises made by everyone around him
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He replied as if he was making an announcement that his
name was Saheb – E – Alam
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The author wondered that if he came to know
that his name meant “Lord of the Universe” would he be able to believe it as his name was
opposite to his life
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Tradition to Stay Barefoot
The author came to recognize each of the children who often came with Saheb
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Once the author asked one of them that why was he not wearing any
footwear
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Another
boy said that even if his mother would have given him the footwear, he would have thrown it
away
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The author had seen many children walking barefoot in the cities as well as the villages
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The author wondered and
concluded that the reason of it being a tradition was a mere excuse to hide the fact that they
were so poor that they could not afford footwear
...
(Udipi is a town in Karnataka)
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At the temple he would pray to God to bless him with a pair of shoes
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The new priest lived in the
backyard of the temple
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She saw plastic chairs kept there
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She was reminded of another boy
who got a pair of shoes
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The goddess had granted his prayer as the boy never lost his footwear
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Author’s Visit to Seemapuri
Once the author went to Seemapuri, where those ragpicker boys used to live
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The area had been a
wasteland but now it was not empty as almost ten thousand rag pickers lived there in structures
made of mud, with roofs made of thin sheets of tin or plastic material called tarpaulin
...
These people had been living there
illegally for the last thirty years
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The politicians of the area had provided them ration cards and voter identity cards
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Rag picking was the only means of survival for the
people living in Seemapuril
...
These families
searched the garbage dumps and got things which they sold to fund their food
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Fulfillment of Dream
One winter morning the author saw Saheb standing by the fence of a club, watching tennis game
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The author figured out that Saheb had got them from a
garbage dump
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Saheb was not bothered by this fact and
had no problem wearing them as he could not afford anything better than that
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Although due to the
garbage dump, Saheb’s dream of wearing shoes had been partially fulfilled
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He told her that he had got a job at the nearby tea stall
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The writer asked him if he liked the job as she could see that he had
lost the carefree look
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Earlier, as a rag picker, Saheb would carry his own
bag and was his own master
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Story 2
Firozabad

The author once visited to Firozabad
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It was the main
town of India for the glass – blowing industry
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They didn’t know that
to force children to work in such glass factories was against the law
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They often ended up losing their eyesight
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His dream was to learn car driving and
become a motor mechanic
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His family was also involved in the profession of glass – bangle making
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In the way the author noticed the families living along
with animals in slums with no windows
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Mukesh lived in a partially constructed hut with his family
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There she met
Mukesh’s grandfather
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The only thing which he taught his children was the skill of making
bangles
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She said that she had seen her husband become blind due to
the dust from polishing the glass bangles
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The author describes the environment where these bangle makers worked
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The children would sit next to a line of oil lamps
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As they spent a lot of time in the dark,
their eyes would not adapt to the bright sunlight
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Story of Savita and the Old Woman
The author noticed a young girl named Savita
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The author thinks
that the girl would find out the importance when she will get married
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Her
husband regretted that he had not done much except making a house for his family to live
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Helplessness of Bangle Makers

The author suggested the bangle makers to form a cooperative in order to get out of the
clutches of the cruel middlemen who had trapped their elders
...

Their acts would be termed to be unlawful
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This burden was passed to the next generation by the adults and seemed to be having no end
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Do you believe that ‘God-given lineage can be broken’? Support your answer with an example
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Hard work and determination can certainly make us
reach our dreams or goals
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A
...
J
Abdul Kalam was born in Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu, and had to struggle a lot in his life before
he joined ISRO
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How do you think the author’s life might have been impacted after her interactions with the
children and their families mentioned in “Lost Spring”?
Ans- The author came to know the reality of the unprivileged class of people living in our world
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This could have a profound impact on her life
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Her organization may try to educate those children who can’t
afford going to schools
...

3
...
With what
perspective do the rag pickers of Seemapuri look at garbage?
Ans- The garbage was as precious as gold for the rag pickers of Seemapuri
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They searched the garbage dumps and got things which they sold
to fund their food
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On the other hand the children of Seemapuri looked the garbage dump as treasure
hunt or wonderland where magical things like coins, ten-rupee note, bag, shoes etc
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4
...
Explain
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Almost ten thousand rag pickers
lived there in structures made of mud, with roofs made of thin sheets of tin or plastic material
called tarpaulin
...
These
people had been living there illegally for the last thirty years
...
The politicians of the area had provided them ration cards
and voter identity cards
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Rag picking was the only
means of survival for the people living in Seemapuri
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Compare and contrast Savita and the old woman’s stories
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Savita is a young girl, who has been making bangles since childhood
under the supervision of an old woman
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In contrast, the old woman
who was teaching Savita, has been making bangles for a long time and has lost her eyesight
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6
...
She said that she had seen her husband become
blind due to the dust from polishing the glass bangles
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7
...

Ans- The bangle makers of Firozabad are completely dependent on the moneylenders,
middlemen and the police for carrying on their business
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The adult bangle makers carried this system which they passed onto the next
generation
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8
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• Do you agree? Explain
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Ans- Yes, I do agree that ‘Lost Spring’ sketches the miserable condition of the underprivileged
society
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The author of the story, Anees Jung has focused on the pitiable condition of poor
children who have been forced to live in the slums and work hard in dirty conditions
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Rag picking was the only way of their
survival
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Both the stories speak the truth that in spite of back-breaking hard work they cannot
have enough meals a day
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Finally they too end up in their said family professions
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They are
unfamiliar to the developing world, they don’t even bother about these things
...
How does the story, ‘Lost Spring’ highlight the apathy of society and those in power to end

the vicious cycle of poverty? Support your answer with textual evidence
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In the first story Saheb was a child who did
rag picking with his family for their survival
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In the second story Mukesh was a child who belonged
to a family of bangle makers and works in bangle making industry along with his family but he
wished to become a motor mechanic and was determined for his aim
...
The major reason of their such condition is
the people who belonged to the upper class, the politicians and officials
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Both, Saheb and Mukesh were unknown to the importance of education
...
There was no one to guide them in their own families but the rich
and educated people too didn’t showed any interest in helping them
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If
the powerful people of higher class would have helped them to get out of poverty and get
educated, then the lives of both Saheb and Mukesh would definitely be different
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Would you agree that promises made to poor children are rarely kept? Why do you think
this happens in the incidents narrated in the text?
Ans- I agree that promises made to the poor or underprivileged kids are often broken
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She realized this when she asked Saheb if he would attend a school if she built
one in his area, he agreed with hope
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It becomes very difficult for poor people to rely on anyone only because of such false
promises
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