Hey everyone! Welcome back to another important topic on Assamese Medium. In this post, we will discuss the details of Lost Spring and its question Answer. If you are a student of Class 12 and you are searching for the Lost Spring Question Answer then this article may help you a lot in the upcoming HS Final Exam 2023- 24.
Lost Spring Question Answer | HS Final Exam 2023-24
Here in this post, we have tried our best to provide all the textual question answers, additional question answers, and some important question answers for the HS Final Exam 2023-24 session.
Short Details of Lost Spring
“Lost Spring” is a short story written by Anees Jung, an Indian author. The story focuses on the lives of impoverished children who are forced to work in terrible conditions to make ends meet. The events in the story take place in Seemapuri, a slum located on the outskirts of Delhi. The protagonist of the story is Saheb, a young boy who belongs to the Chamar caste, a community of metalworkers.
The story highlights the issue of child labor in India, and how it deprives children of their right to education and a happy childhood. Saheb and his friend Mukesh work as ragpickers, and their lives are full of hardship and struggle. Despite their dreams of a better future, their poverty and social status prevent them from pursuing their ambitions.
Additionally, the story brings attention to the social and economic inequality prevalent in Indian society. Children in Seemapuri do not have access to basic facilities like clean water, healthcare, and education. They are forced to live in unsanitary conditions and work for meager wages. The story also touches on the issue of caste discrimination in India and how it affects marginalized communities.
In conclusion, “Lost Spring” is a moving account of the challenges faced by underprivileged children in India. It underscores the urgent need to tackle child labor and provide equal opportunities for education and a better life for all children. The story provides valuable insights into the social and economic inequality prevalent in Indian society and calls for a more just and equitable world.
Lost Spring Question Answer
1. What is Saheb looking for in the garbage dumps? Where is he and where has he come from?
Ans: Saheb is looking for gold in the garbage dumps. He is now in Seemapuri. He has come from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
2. What explanation does the writer offer for the children not wearing footwear?
Ans: According to the writer, some say that children do not wear shoes or chappal for the sake of tradition. But the writer can’t see eye with them and observes that it is only a way to explain away the perpetual state of poverty and hunger.
3. Is Saheb happy working at the tea stall? Explain.
Ans: Saheb is not happy at all, working at the tea stall. He is carrying a steel canister which seems much heavier than his plastic bags in which he carried together rags. He has lost the carefree look on his face. He is now no more his own master.
4. What makes the city of Firozabad famous?
Ans: Firozabad is the center of glass-blowing industries in India. It is the largest producer of bangles. From generation to generation the people of Firozabad have been making bangles for Indian women.
5. Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry.
Ans: The glass bangles industry of Firozabad is the working place for about 20,000 children. They are made to work there illegally. They have to work in dingy cells without windows. They live in stinking lanes full of garbage. Their eyes are more adjusted to the dark than to the light. They become blind before they are adults. Most of them go blind from the dust from polishing the glass bangles.
Moreover, there are middlemen, policemen, and politicians who exploit them and never allow them to organize.
6. How is Mukesh’s attitude to his situation different from that of his family?
Ans: The people of Firozabad can’t think of anything except bangle-making. They consider it a God-made lineage that they should not break. They are born in the bangle makers caste. So, Bangle making is their tradition. Mukesh’s father knows nothing except his sons making bangles and he taught what he knows. He didn’t care to send his two sons to school.
Mukesh is, however, different from the rest. He wants to be a motor mechanic. To be so, he has the required determination. He wants to drive cars, Of course, he can never dream of flying airplanes that seldom fly over Firozabad.
Understanding the test
1. What could be some of the reasons for the migration of people from villages to cities?
Ans: There are many reasons why people are migrating from villages to cities. The problem of land, due to the increase in population has made many go to the cities. The use of scientific methods of farming has lessened the scope for landless laborers. The destruction of traditional arts and handicrafts also has worsened the economic condition of the village people. So, they have to go to the cities.
2. 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: Yes, the promises made to the poor are rarely kept. We organize seminars to eradicate child labor. But we live in a hypocritical world where the more hazardous the industry is the more child workers. it will employ. In the fireworks industry of Sivakashi in Tamilnadu scores of children die because of the blast in the factories. The law is dumb and the administration is blind in this regard.
The storyteller Anees Jung has described the hard realities of life in her story. About 10,000 children are ragpickers in Seemapur. About 20,000 children are engaged in the glassblowing industry of Firozabad. Their lives are miserable.
3. What forces conspire to keep the workers in the bangle industry of Friozabad in poverty?
Ans: There are many forces that conspire to keep the workers in poverty. They are not allowed to from any organization. The middlemen exploit them. The policemen harass them. The moneylenders suck their blood. The administration is also dumb to speak against such injustice. Law is only used like a toy by the rich.
Talking about the text
1. How, in your opinion, can Mukesh realize his dream?
Ans: Mukesh wants to be the master of his own. Fortune favors the brave and so Mukesh should not lose heart. He should try to find out a work of an apprentice in some garage. He can also learn how to drive a car so that he can have a driving license. Then he can be a driver.
2. Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry.
Ans: Working in the glass bangles industry is hazardous. About 20,000 children work there by the hot furnaces. Law is unable to do anything for them. They have to work in some dingy cells without air and light. Their eyes are adjusted to the darkness more than the light. Mukesh’s grandfather went blind with the dust of polished glass. The hard and perpetual work makes their mind numb and destroys their ability to dream. In the small huntments, all work together, shaping the pieces of colored glass into circles of bangles.
3. Why should child labor be eliminated and how?
Ans: It is a matter of great shame, that India has the maximum number of child workers in the world. It is a stigma that has made India ashamed of itself. About 20,000 of them work in Friozabad. There are more than 10,000 of them in Seemapur.
Childhood is the most tender age. A child needs love and care. It has some dreams which can change their life. But the hard reality destroys them before they realize them. Therefore child labor is banned by law.
But the law against child labor is toothless. Those who employ a child must be punished. Only exemplary punishment can put an end to this hateful practice.
Thinking about language
Some features of the style of Anees Jung have made her story an almost poetic prose.
They are – (1) Hyperbole – When something is described exaggeratedly. For example – Garbage is to them gold.
(2) Metaphor – A metaphor transfers the quality of one thing to another. Ex=He is a lion in the battle.
(3) Simile: A way of showing similarities between two almost dissimilar things with like and as ex – As proud as a peacock.
Now identify the figures of speech of the following.
1. Saheb – e- Alam which means the Lord of the universe is directly in contrast to what saheb is in reality.- Hyperbole.
2. Drowned in an air of desolation – Metaphor.
3. Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it metaphorically – Contrast.
4. For the children it is wrapped in wonder for the elders it is a means of survival – Contrast.
5. As her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine, I wonder if she knows the sanctity of the bangles she helps to make – Simile.
6. She still has bangles on her wrist, but no light in her eyes, – Contrast.
7. Few airplanes fly over Friozabad – Contrast.
8. Web of poverty – Metaphor.
9. Scrounging for gold – Hyperbole.
10. And survival in Seemapuri means rag–picking. Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of fine art. – Hyperbole.
11. The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulders. – Contrast.
Things to do
1. What is a paradox? The beauty of the bangles covers the hard reality of child labor. Can you find examples more?
Ans: Paradox means having contradictory ideas.
The contradiction of ideas or things is a paradox It is said all that glitters is not gold – Like that way when we get finished items of any industry, we can’t imagine the stark reality of making such items. Thousand of children are made to work in the dangerous situation of the industry. As they have no means to earn their bread, the children work there in the most hazardous condition. They often get burnt by the fire. Many of them die in the blast that often takes place there.
But when we use the matches, we never try to find that behind the making of such beautiful boxes of the match, there is hard soil of many children who should go to school but can never go into poverty. The beauty of the matchboxes, thus, laughs at the stigma of child labor in India.
