LOST SPRING
- By Anees Jung
A Rag Picker : Author encounters every morning
1) Saheb-E-Alam Irony in his name
Lord of the Universe X Rag picker in reality
1971 migrated from Bangladesh
Barefoot army of barefoot boys,
Morning birds disappear in the noon
Do you go to school - No school in the neighbourhood
If I open school, will you.........
Agrees
Authors forgets her promise
a) mother did not bring down chapple from the shelf
b) Even if she brings he will throw them off (Other boy wearing shoes not matching says)
c) Third boy says 'I want shoes' never owned a pair of shoes in life
d) Not lack of money but tradition makes them move without shoes
tradition may just be an excuse to hide perpetual poverty the author wonders.
e) story of a man from Udipi
-- son of priest praying God for shoes
-- 30 years later - new priest's
-- son wearing socks and shoes
-- but still many boys like rag picker in his neighbourhood
-- barefoot
2) Garbage a heap of gold for them- wrapped wonder for children
' I find a rupee , even a 10 rs note, when you can find a silver coin - you don't stop for there is a hope
3) Garbage Means of survival for elders:
But for children it is full of suspense
4) Garbage is gold,daily bread and butter , it is a roof even if leaking
5) rag picking acquired proportion of fine art in Seemapuri :
- devoid of sewage, drainage
- with roofs of tin
- taurpolin
6) no identity without permit , but with ration cards
7) ration cards bring their names on voters list
8) One winter Morning
9) Saheb standing near the fenced gate of the neighbourhood club
10) two young men playing tennis- watch - out of his reach
11) goes inside when no one is around
12) watchman let him take a swing
13) This morning- carrying steel canister - milk booth to tea shop - 800 Rs. salary
a) carefree looks gone
b) steel canister heavier than plastic bag
c) bag was his , canister belongs to tea shop owner
d) Saheb no longer his master
Second story : 1) MUKESH :lived in Firozabad: His ambition to be a Motor Mechanic
2) a) Firozabad main profession : Bangle Making
b) Centre of India's glass blowing industry
c) welding glass, making bangles for all the women
d) children working around furnaces PATHETIC CONDITION
e) i) 20,000/- children working illegally,
ii) slog their working hours around hot furnaces.
f) volunteers to take Anees Jung the writer to his home
(he says is being rebuilt)
g) stinking lanes, choked with garbage, hovels(Open Shade) with crumbling walls, shared with cattle, wobbly doors, no windows, crowded, pathetic conditions, human & animal coexisting in primeval state
h) Mukesh's home half built shack , one part thatched with dead grass, one
part , firewood stove,
3) Mukesh's family members
a)His elder borther
b)His father
c)His sister in law -frail little woman(his brother's wife)
d) withdraws behind the wall, veil covers her face
e)Mukesh father , worked as tailor then as a bangle maker
but failed to renovate house and give education to his two children,
could only teach art of making bangles to his son
f) shanty town, unkempt yards,
g) In dark hutments, next to lines of flames of flickering oil lamp children
sit with their parents welding pieces of coloured glass
their eyes more adjusted to the dark than to the light outside
h) lose eyesight before they become adult
Third Story SAVITA ;
a) Young girl in drab pink dress, along side elderly women ,welding glass
b) Girl's hands moving like tongs of machine(Simile)
c) Writer wonders - if the girl aware of ----Sanctity of the bangles
d) Sanctity will dawn upon her when she will be draped in a red veil
e) on being bride- hand dyed with henna - red bangles on wrist- will be a
bride
f) woman beside her married many years back-- no light in her eye
"Ek wakt sher bhar khana bhi nahi khaya"(not enjoyed one full meal in life)
g) her husband knows only bangle making- made a house for family- many
failed to do that
General Condition : nothing to do, no other business, old and young lament
mind numbing toil killed ability top dream,
killed initiativer
i) Why not Organized?
if organized (illegal thing), hauled, beaten and dragged to jail
j) No leader, apathy, poverty, greed, injustice
5) Listening to them author could make out two different world
i) family caught in web of poverty, burdened by stigma of their caste they'r
born
ii) vicious circle of "Sahukars" ,
middlemen,
the policemen the keepers of law, bureaucrates and politicians
# Above things and people imposed the baggage on children, can't put down
iii) accept as naturally as their father, to do anything else mean to dare
6) daring not a part of their grwing up
7) writer sensed a flash of daring in Mukesh, felt cheered
8) go to garage walking long distance, learn
9) dream to drive car , be a car mechanic - contented
but plane was not a part of his dream - response to writer's question
