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Lost Spring

by Anees Jung

Story 1:
“Sometimes I Find a Rupee in the Garbage”

Introduction to Chapter

Anees Jung is one of the famous writers of India. She was born in Rourkela. But she spent her childhood in Hyderabad. She got her education in Hyderabad and in USA. Anees Jung began her literary career as writer and columnist for major newspapers of India. This lesson has been taken from her book ‘Lost Spring, Stories of Stolen Childhood’. This lesson presents a depressing picture of modern India. She gives a realistic description of the grinding poverty and pathetic condition of poor and innocent children like Saheb of Seemapuri and Mukesh of Firozabad. Saheb is a ragpicker in Seemapuri, near Delhi. Mukesh works as a labourer in a bangle-making factory of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh. Like many others in India, the childhood of Saheb and Mukesh is full of abject poverty and misery.

Summary In English

“Sometimes I find a rupee in the garbage”: Saheb is a ragpicker. Anees Jung sees him daily scrounging the garbage dumps. He came from Dhaka, which is in Bangladesh. He has no memory of his home. His family came away from Bangladesh because storms destroyed their homes and fields. Anees Jung asks him his full name. His full name is ‘Saheb-e-Alam,’ which means “Lord of the Universe”. This name is ironical as he is not the lord of even his own life. He leads a life of utter poverty and misery. He roams the streets with other ragpickers. Like them, he is also barefoot. They live in a state of perpetual poverty and cannot afford shoes or chappals. Like many other families of ragpickers, Saheb’s family lives in Seemapuri. This is a dirty colony on the periphery of Delhi. About 10,000 ragpickers live there in miserable conditions. The colony shows no signs of development. The houses are made of mud and have roofs of tin and tarpaulin. The colony is devoid of sewage drainage or running water. They have lived for more than thirty years. They have no identity or permits. But they have ration cards that enable them to buy grain or to cast votes. For them food is more important than identity. Wherever they find food, they pitch their tents and become a transit camp. One morning, the writer sees Saheb standing by the fenced gate of a club. He is watching two young men playing tennis. He tells her that he likes the game. Saheb is also wearing tennis shoes. These were given to him by a rich boy because there is a hole in one of the shoes. Now Saheb works in a tea stall. He gets 800 rupees plus meals. The writer observes that Saheb’s face has lost its carefree look. He is no longer his own master.

See Video for Summary of the Chapter in English

Summary In Hindi

कथाकर्ता साहेब से पूछता है कि वह कूड़ेदान में सोने के लिए क्यों खोज करता है। ऐसा प्रतीत होता है कि उन्होंने अपने घर को लंबे समय से पीछे छोड़ दिया है जो ढाका के हरित क्षेत्रों के बीच स्थापित था। उनकी मां ने उन्हें बताया कि तूफान अपने खेतों और घरों को तब्हा कर चुके थे। यही कारण है कि अब वे सोने की तलाश में बड़े शहर में रहते हैं। जब पूछा गया कि क्या वह स्कूल जाता है तो उसका जवाब सरल है “कि उसके पड़ोस में कोई स्कूल नहीं है”। जब उसके नाम के अर्थ के बारे में पूछा गया तो वह अनजान प्रतीत होता है। कथाकार सोचता है कि उसकी जीवित स्थितियों और उनके नाम “ब्रह्मांड के भगवान” का अर्थ अत्यधिक विपरीत है। वह नंगे पैर लड़कों के एक समूह के साथ है। फिर से पूछा जा रहा है कि क्यों वह चप्पल नहीं पहनता है ?? कथाकार ने नोट किया कि देश भर में यात्रा करते हुए उसने देखा कि बच्चे शहरों और गांव की सड़कों पर नंगे पैर चल रहे हैं। उसने कहा कि यह पैसे की कमी नहीं बल्कि नंगे पैर रहने की परंपरा है। गरीबी के लिए यह उनकी व्याख्या है। राैग पिकर्स के साथ कथाकार के परिचय ने उन्हें देहली की परिधि पर सीमापुरी नामक जगह पर ले जाया है। वहां के अधिकांश निवासी स्क्वाटर हैं जो 1971 में बांग्लादेश से आए थे। साहेब का परिवार उनमें से एक है। जो की गंदे झुगियों में झुण्ड बनाकर रहते हैं। कथाकार ने देखा कि वे बिना किसी पहचान के तीस साल से अधिक समय तक यहाँ रह रहे हैं, लेकिन उनके पास एक राशन कार्ड है जिसके द्वारा उन्हें फ्री में भोजन प्राप्त हो जाता है। सीमापुरी में जिनने के लिए मुख्य रूप से लोग चूहे पकड़ने का काम ही करते हैं। और यहाँ पर वयस्कों और बच्चों दोनों के लिए कचरा का अलग अर्थ है। वयस्कों के लिए यह अस्तित्व का साधन है जबकि बच्चों के लिए यह आश्चर्य की बात है। एक शीतकालीन सुबह कथाकार देखता है की पड़ोस के क्लब में साहेब दो युवा पुरुष टेनिस खेलते हुए देखता है। साहेब अपने पूरे जीवन में नंगे पैर चला है। है की अगर उसे फाटे हुए जुटे भी दिए गए पहने के लिए तो यह उनके लिए एक सपना होगा। उस सुबह साहेब एक स्टील का बर्तन लेकर दूध लेने जा रहा होता है। और जब ख़ताकार साहेब को रोककर यह पूछता है की उसे यह नौकरी पसंद है की नहीं तो साहेब न में सर हिलता है। साहेब अब अपना स्वामी नहीं है।

See Video for Summary of the Chapter in Hindi

Full Explanation

“Why do you do this?” I ask Saheb whom I encounter every morning scrounging for gold in the garbage dumps of my neighbourhood. Saheb left his home long ago. Set amidst the green fields of Dhaka, his home is not even a distant memory. There were many storms that swept away their fields and homes, his mother tells him. That’s why they left, looking for gold in the big city where he now lives. “I have nothing else to do,” he mutters, looking away.
“Go to school,” I say glibly, realising immediately how hollow the advice must sound. “There is no school in my neighbourhood. When they build one, I will go.” “If I start a school, will you come?” I ask, half-joking. “Yes,” he says, smiling broadly. A few days later I see him running up to me. “Is your school ready?” “It takes longer to build a school,” I say, embarrassed at having made a promise that was not meant. But promises like mine abound in every corner of his bleak world. After months of knowing him, I ask him his name. “Saheb-e-Alam,” he announces. He does not know what it means. If he knew its meaning—lord of the universe—he would have a hard time believing it. Unaware of what his name represents, he roams the streets with his friends, an army of barefoot boys who appear like the morning birds and disappear at noon. Over the months, I have come to recognise each of them. “Why aren’t you wearing chappals?” I ask one. “My mother did not bring them down from the shelf,” he answers simply.
“Even if she did he will throw them off,” adds another who is wearing shoes that do not match. When I comment on it, he shuffles his feet and says nothing. “I want shoes,” says a third boy who has never owned a pair all his life. 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.
I remember a story a man from Udipi once told me. As a young boy he would go to school past an old temple, where his father was a priest. He would stop briefly at the temple and pray for a pair of shoes. Thirty years later I visited his town and the temple, which was now drowned in an air of desolation. In the backyard, where lived the new priest, there were red and white plastic chairs. A young boy dressed in a grey uniform, wearing socks and shoes, arrived panting and threw his school bag on a folding bed. Looking at the boy, I remembered the prayer another boy had made to the goddess when he had finally got a pair of shoes, “Let me never lose them.” The goddess had granted his prayer. Young boys like the son of the priest now wore shoes. But many others like the ragpickers in my neighbourhood remain shoeless. My acquaintance with the barefoot ragpickers leads me to Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it, metaphorically. Those who live here are squatters who came from Bangladesh back in 1971. Saheb’s family is among them. Seemapuri was then a wilderness. It still is, but it is no longer empty. In structures of mud, with roofs of tin and tarpaulin, devoid of sewage, drainage or running water, live 10,000 ragpickers. They have lived here for more than thirty years without an identity, without permits but with ration cards that get their names on voters’ lists and enable them to buy grain. Food is more important for survival than an identity. “If at the end of the day we can feed our families and go to bed without an aching stomach, we would rather live here than in the fields that gave us no grain,” say a group of women in tattered saris when I ask them why they left their beautiful land of green fields and rivers. Wherever they find food, they pitch their tents that become transit homes. Children grow up in them, becoming partners in survival. And survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking. Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of a fine art. Garbage to them is gold. It is their daily bread, a roof over their heads, even if it is a leaking roof. But for a child it is even more. “I sometimes find a rupee, even a ten-rupee note,” Saheb says, his eyes lighting up. When you can find a silver coin in a heap of garbage, you don’t stop scrounging, for there is hope of finding more. It seems that for children garbage has a meaning different from what it means to their parents. For the children it is wrapped in wonder, for the elders it is a means of survival. One winter morning I see Saheb standing by the fenced gate of the neighbourhood club, watching two young men dressed in white, playing tennis. “I like the game,” he hums, content to watch it standing behind the fence. “I go inside when no one is around,” he admits. “The gatekeeper lets me use the swing.”
Saheb too is wearing tennis shoes that look strange over his discoloured shirt and shorts. “Someone gave them to me,” he says in the manner of an explanation. The fact that they are discarded shoes of some rich boy, who perhaps refused to wear them because of a hole in one of them, does not bother him. For one who has walked barefoot, even shoes with a hole is a dream come true. But the game he is watching so intently is out of his reach.
This morning, Saheb is on his way to the milk booth. In his hand is a steel canister. “I now work in a tea stall down the road,” he says, pointing in the distance. “I am paid 800 rupees and all my meals.” Does he like the job? I ask. His face, I see, has lost the carefree look. The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulder. The bag was his. The canister belongs to the man who owns the tea shop. Saheb is no longer his own master!

See Video for Explanation and of the Chapter

Word Meanings

No.	Word	Meanings
1	Garbage	(rubbish)
2	encounter	(come across)
3	Scrounging	(searching for something)
4	dumps	(heaps)
5	Flickering	(shining unsteadily)
6	drab	(dull)
7	soldering	(welding)
8	suhaag	(auspiciousness in marriage)
9	Dyed	(coloured)
10	Henna	(mehandi)
11	Entire	(complete)
12	Achieved	(got)
13	Echo	(reflected sound)
14	Organise	(unite)
15	vicious	(wicked)
16	Trapped	(cheated)
17	hauled	up (dragged)
18	apathy	(indifference)
19	distinct	(clear)
20	Stigma	(mark of disgrace)
21	Bureaucrats	(officials)
22	Imposed	(burdened forcibly)
23	flash	(dazzle of light)
24	Murmur	(grumble)
25	regret	(repentance)
26	Hurtling	(clattering)

Exercises

Passages for Comprehension

Passage 1:

Questions

(i) Name the chapter from which these lines have been taken?
(A) The Last Lesson
(B) Lost Spring
(C) Deep Water
(D) The Rattrap
(B) Lost Spring

(ii) Name the author of these lines.
(A) Alphonse Daudet (B) Saheb (C) Anees Jung (D) none of these Ans. (C) Anees Jung
(iii) Who is Saheb?
(A) a school going boy
(B) the son of a king
(C) a ragpicker boy
(D) the writer’s son
Ans. (C) a ragpicker boy

(iv) Which city did Saheb’s family belong to?
(A) Dhaka
(B) Kolkata
(C) Patna
(D) Chennai
Ans. (A) Dhaka

(v) What was Saheb scrounging for in the heaps of garbage?
(A) books
(B) food
(C) toys
(D) rags
Ans. (D) rags

Passage 2:

My acquaintance with the barefoot ragpickers leads me to Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it, metaphorically. Those who live here are squatters who came from Bangladesh back in 1971. Saheb’s family is among them. Seemapuri was then a wilderness. It still is, but it is no longer empty. In structures of mud, with roofs of tin and tarpaulin, devoid of sewage, drainage or running water, live 10,000 ragpickers. Word-meanings: Acquaintance = introduction: squatters = illegal settlers

Questions

(i) Name the chapter from which these lines have been taken?
(A) The Last Lesson
(B) Lost Spring
(C) Deep Water
(D) The Rattrap
Ans. (B) Lost Spring

(ii) Name the author of these lines.
(A) Alphonse Daudet
(B) Saheb
(C) Anees Jung
(D) none of these
Ans. (C) Anees Jung

(iii) Where is Seemapuri situated?
(A) in the centre of Delhi
(B) on the periphery of Delhi
(C) outside Delhi
(D) all of the above
Ans. (B) on the periphery of Delhi

(iv) Who lived in Seemapuri ?
(A) Farmers
(B) Politicians
(C) Traders
(D) Ragpickers
Ans. (D) Ragpickers

(v) What change has come in Seemapuri over the years?
(A) It is no longer a wilderness
(B) Here structures of mud, with roofs of tin and tarpaulin have appeared here
(C) About 10,000 ragpickers live here
(D) all of the above
Ans. (D) all of the above

Question and Answers

Q:1. What is Saheb looking for in the garbage dumps? Where is he and where has he come from?
A: Saheb is a ragpicker. He scrounges the garbage dumps for bits of paper, rags, plastic items, etc. He makes a living by selling these things. He tells the author that sometimes he finds a rupee, even a ten-rupee note in the garbage. He is living in Seemapuri, which is at the outskirts of Delhi. He has come from Dhaka, in Bangladesh.
Q:2. What explanations does the author offer for the children not wearing footwear?
A: The author sees Saheb and other poor children without footwear. One explanation is that it has become a tradition for them to remain barefoot. But the author feels that it is only an excuse to explain away a continuous state of poverty. Because of their poverty, they cannot afford to buy shoes.
Q:3. Is Saheb happy working at the tea-stall? Explain.
A: One day the author finds that Saheb has left rag-picking and is now working at a tea-stall. He gets Rs 800 per month with meals. But his face doesn’t show the carefree look. He doesn’t seem to be happy working at the tea stall. He is no longer his own master.
Q:4. What could be some of the reasons for the migration of people from villages to cities?
A: More and more villagers keep migrating to cities. There are many reasons for the migration of people from villages to cities. They come to cities looking for work. With the increase in population, pressure on land is also increasing. The land for agriculture is limited. It cannot accommodate the growing families. So, they come to cities for their livelihood. Sometimes, natural calamities also force people to leave villages and come to cities. Another reason is the mechanisation of farming. Because of use of machines on the farms, less labour is required. So, the surplus labour comes to cities in search of employment. Another reason is that due to modernisation, the social set up of the villages has been disturbed. The rural crafts are disappearing. The villages are no long self-sufficient. Lastly, cities have better facilities like good markets, hospitals, schools and colleges. That is why people form the villages are migrating to cities.
Q:5. 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?
A: Yes, the promises made to the poor children are rarely kept. When we see a poor child, we are filled with pity and want to help him. We may give him a little help at that moment. But we often make promises to them our temporary sense of pity at their plight. However, most of these promises are impracticable. In this lesson, Saheb is a poor ragpicker. The author feels pity for him. She asks him to join a school. Saheb replies that there is no school in the neighbourhood. The author tells him half-jokingly that she would start a school and would give him admission in it. This is not the real or serious promise. However, like other poor children, Saheb takes this promise seriously. After a few days, he asks the author whether her school is ready. The author herself knows that such promises cannot be fulfilled. She says, “But promises like mine abound in every corner of this bleak world.” In this way, promises made to poor children for their welfare are generally not serious promises. These promises are not meant to be fulfilled.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is the writer of extract ‘Lost Spring’?
(A) Najees Jung
(B) Anees Jung
(C) Janees Aung
(D) Ganeesh Gunj
Ans. (B) Anees Jung

2. Who is Saheb?
(A) a shopkeeper
(B) a soldier
(C) a ragpicker
(D) a student
Ans. (C) a ragpicker

3. From where did Saheb come?
(A) Dhaka
(B) Dhamaka
(C) Jorhat
(D) Chittagong
Ans. (A) Dhak

4. Why did Saheb and his family come to India leaving Bangladesh?
(A) they liked India
(B) they were expelled from there
(C) because of communal violence there
(D) because storms destroyed their homes and fields
Ans. (D) because storms destroyed their homes and fields

5. What is Saheb’s full name
(A) Saheb-e-Alam
(B) Alam-e-Saheb
(C) Laheb-e-Salam
(D) Maheb-e-Lalam
Ans. (A) Saheb-e-Alam

6. What is the meaning of ‘Saheb-e-Alam’?
(A) great ragpicker
(B) chief of pick-pockets
(C) Lord of the Universe
(D) Lord of the pirates
Ans. (C) Lord of the Universe

7. Saheb’s name means “Lord of the Universe’, but he leads a life
of________________ .
(A) wealth and power
(B) opulence
(C) prosperity
(D) poverty and misery
Ans. (D) poverty and misery

8. Why does Saheb remain barefoot?
(A) his feet are beautiful
(B) he hates shoes
(C) he is so poor that he cannot buy shoes and chappals
(D) his employer forbids him to wear shoes
Ans. (C) he is so poor that he cannot buy shoes and chappals

9. Where does Saheb live?
(A) Seemapuri
(B) Peemasuri
(C) Maujpur
(D) Paujmur
Ans. (A) Seemapuri

10. The houses in Seemapuri are made of __________ .
(A) bricks and concrete
(B) asbestos sheets
(C) mud, tin and tarpaulin
(D) plywood
Ans. (C) mud, tin and tarpaulin

11. For the people of Saheb’s colony what is more important than identity?
(A) gold
(B) silver
(C) coats
(D) food
Ans. (D) food

12. Where do Saheb and other such people pitch their tents?
(A) in a good colony
(B) wherever they find food
(C) by the bank of a river
(D) near a theatre
Ans. (B) wherever they find food

13. What is Saheb watching from the fenced gate of a club?
(A) two young men playing tennis
(B) two women dancing
(C) two dogs quarrelling dog
(D) a gardener planting flowers
Ans. (A) two young men playing tennis

14. Later, Saheb is found wearing shoes. Who gave them the shoes?
(A) the writer
(B) a policeman
(C) a doctor
(D) a rich boy
Ans. (D) a rich boy

15. Why did a rich boy give the tennis shoes to Saheb?
(A) he liked Saheb
(B) he hated his shoes
(C) there was a hole in one of them
(D) Saheb bought them from him.
Ans. (C) there was a hole in one of the

16. Where does Saheb work after leaving the work of being a ragpicker
(A) a factory
(B) in a tea stall
(C) on a farm
(D) in a school
Ans. (B) in a tea stall

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Lost Spring

by Anees Jung

Story 1: “Sometimes I Find a Rupee in the Garbage”

Introduction to Chapter

Summary In English

Summary In Hindi

Full Explanation

Word Meanings

Exercises

Passages for Comprehension

Questions

Questions

Question and Answers

Other Important Questions:

Multiple Choice Questions

Story 1:
“Sometimes I Find a Rupee in the Garbage”