Summary of English Chapter 2 Lost Spring Class 12
Table of Contents
Part – I The Ragpickers
- Long ago Saheb left his home which was set in the middle of the green fields of Dhaka. Both the home and the green fields were swept away in many storms. Now he has been looking for gold in the garbage dumps of authoress Anees Jung’s neighbourhood. Every morning the authoress encounters Saheb. On her asking why he does that, he replies that he has nothing else to do. In reply to the questions why he does not go to school, he tells that there is no school in his neighbourhood. If they build a school he will go; but he does not know it takes a long time to build a school.
- His full name is “Saheb-e-Alam”. It means lord of the universe. But he does not know what it means. He roams in the streets with his friends. They are an army of barefoot boys. They work in the morning and disappear at noon. They live in a perpetual state of poverty and can’t afford shoes or chapels. Travelling across the country the authoress has seen children walking barefoot everywhere, in cities, or village roads. But most of the ragpickers like Saheb remain shoeless.
- Most of these ragpickers live in Seemapuri. It is a place on the periphery of Delhi. The houses are out of mud. They have roofs of tin and tarpaulin. There is no sewage, drainage or running water. They came from Bangladesh in 1971. Saheb’s family was among them. More than 10,000 ragpickers have lived there for 30 years. They have no identity or permits. They do have ration cards that enable them to vote and buy grain. Women move around in tattered saris.
- Surviving in Seemapuri means ragpicking. Through the years it has acquired the position of a fine art. Garbage to them is gold. Sometimes a child can find a silver coin in a heap of garbage. There is always hope of finding more. Garbage is wrapped in wonder for children. For elders it is a means of survival.
- Our winter morning Saheb watches from the nearby club fenced gate, two young men playing tennis. Saheb is also wearing tennis shoes. They are discarded shoes of some rich boy. He refused to wear them because of a hole in one of them. For Saheb an even shoe with a hole is a dream that has come true.
- One morning Saheb is on his way to milk booth. He tells the authoress that now he works at the tea-stall down the road, and he is paid 800 rupees and all his meals. But she asks, “Does he like the job.” She notices his face has lost the carefree look. He is carrying a steel canister. It seems heavier than the plastic bag that he used to carry on his shoulder. The bag was his. The container belongs to the shop-owner. Saheb is no longer “his own master”.
Part – II The Bangles Maker
- The writer once meets a boy named Mukesh. The boy lives in Firozabad and belongs to a family of bangle makers. Mukesh says that he does not want to go into the family profession. He has decided to become a motor mechanic. Every other family in Firozabad is engaged in making bangles. It is the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry. Here Families have spent generations in making bangles for women. Mukesh’s family is among them.
- About 20,000 children work in the glass furnaces of Firozabad. They have to work in very unhealthy condition. Their parent’s don’t know that it is illegal to make children work here in dingy cells without air and light. They don’t get any daylight. They often lose their eye-sight. The powder from polishing of bangles also blinds them.
- Mukesh offers to take the writer to his home. He proudly says that their house is rebuilt. When the writer goes there, he finds that it is a half-built shack. Inside, there are everywhere signs of poverty. A frail young woman is cooking the evening meal. She is the wife of Mukesh’s elder brother. Mukesh’s father is also there. He has been doing hard labour for years. First he was a tailor and then a bangle maker. Yet he has failed to renovate his house. He could not send his two sons to school. He could only teach them the art of making bangles.
- Mukesh’s grandmother says that it was all in their destiny. Her husband has gone blind with the dust from polishing the glass bangles. She says that they were born in the caste of bangle makers and have seen nothing but bangles in their life. Boys and girls in all work in dark hutments. Their eyes are more adjusted to the dark than to the light outside. Thus they lose their eyesight even before they become adults.
- The writer sees a girl named Savita in another hutment. She is sitting with an elderly woman and soldering pieces of glass. She doesn’t know that the bangles she is making are symbols of an India woman’s suhag. The old woman sitting beside her still has not enjoyed even one full meal all her life. Her old husband says that he knows nothing expect bangles. However, he feels some consolation to say that he has made a house for his family to live in.
- The writer says that the cry of poverty rings in every home in Firozabad. These poor people are exploited by sahukars, policeman, middleman, bureaucrats and politicians. They can’t sand on their feet and organize themselves into a cooperative. They fear to be dragged to jail, if they fight for their rights. They have come to accept their poverty and exploitation as something natural.
- The writer feels happy that Mukesh has decided to break away from this vicious circle. He has decided to go garage and learn the job of a motor mechanic. Thus he will one day his own master.
Summary of English Chapter 2 Lost Spring Class 12
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