Lost spring summary

Sometimes I find a rupee in garbage

The author examines and analyses the impoverished conditions and traditions that condemn children to a life of exploitation these children are denied an education and forced into hardships early in their lives.

The writer encounters Saheb – a rag picker whose parents have left behind the life of poverty in Dhaka to earn a living in Delhi. His family like many other families of rag pickers lives in Seemapuri. They do not have other identification other than a ration card.

The children do not go to school and they are excited at the prospect of finding a coin or even a ten rupee note for rummaging in the garbage.

It is the only way of earning.  The writer is pained to see Saheb, a rag picker whose name means the ruler of earth, Lose the spark of childhood and roams barefooted with his friends. From morning to noon the author encounters him in a tea stall and is paid Rs. 800 He sadly realizes that he is no longer his own master and this loss of identity weighs heavily on his tender shoulders.

I want to drive a car

Mukesh Wants to be his Own Master

Here begins the second story. In Firozabad, the author meets Mukesh, who insists on being his own master. He wishes to be a motor mechanic. Anees asks him if he knows anything about cars. Mukesh replies that he wants to learn to drive a car.

The author feels that his dream is like a mirage amidst the dusty streets of Firozabad. Every second family in Firozabad is engaged in the business of bangle-making. Firozabad is the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry, where generations after generations have been involved in this business.

Another Encounter with Poverty

The people of Firozabad involve their children in the bangle-making industry without knowing that it is illegal for children to work in the glass furnaces with high temperatures, in dingy cells without air and light. If the -law is enforced, almost 20000 children would be out of the hot furnaces, where they work day and night, often losing the brightness of their eyes.

Mukesh proudly announces that his house is being rebuilt, and volunteers to take the author home. They walk down stinking lanes choked with garbage, past houses that are small and dirty constructions with wobbly doors and with no windows, where families of humans and animals co-exist in a primitive state.

They enter a half-built shack, one part of which is thatched with dead grass, where a frail young woman is cooking the evening meal for the whole family. She is the wife of Mukesh’s elder brother. Though not much older in years, she has the respect of a bahu. She veils her face when Mukesh’s father enters.

The God-given Lineage

Mukesh’s father has toiled hard all his life, first as a tailor and then as a bangle-maker. Still the poor fellow has been unable to renovate his house or send his two sons to school.

All he could manage to do was to teach them what he knows about the art of bangle-making. Mukesh’s grandmother has seen her husband go blind with the dust from polishing the glass bangles. She believes in destiny. “Can a God-given lineage ever be broken?” she implies. Born in the caste of bangle-makers, they have seen nothing but bangles-bangles of various colours.

Lost Spring

In dark hutments, next to lines of flames of flickering oil lamps, sit boys and girls with their fathers and mothers, welding pieces of coloured glass into circles of bangles. Their eyes are more adjusted to the dark than to the light outside. They often end up losing their eyesight before they become adults. The author notices a young girl, Savita, in a drab pink dress, sitting beside an elderly woman, helping in making bangles. Her hands move like a machine.

Anees wonders if she understands the sanctity of the bangles for Indian women. The sad irony will suddenly dawn upon her. She will become a bride like the old woman sitting beside her. In a voice drained of joy, the old lady tells the author that she has not enjoyed even one full meal in her entire lifetime.

Daring, Not a Part of Growing Up

One wonders if Mukesh’s father has achieved what many have failed to achieve in their lifetime. He has a roof over his head. The cry of not having money can be heard in every household of Firozabad. Nothing has changed over the years. Years of hardship have killed all hopes and dreams.

The author asks a group of young men to organise themselves in a cooperative. She learns the asks a group of men to in a horrific truth that even if they get organised, they are taken to jail for doing something illegal and are beaten up. There is no leader among them.

The author finds two distinct worlds in Firozabad. One is the exploited family caught in a vortex of poverty and the stigma of the caste in which they were born. The other is a vicious circle of those who exploit them, the sahukars, the middlemen, the politicians, the lawmakers, the policemen and the bureaucrats. These have created such a burden that a child accepts this as naturally as its father did. To do something else would mean to dare. And daring is not a part of growing up.

A Ray of Hope

The author is filled with joy when she finds that Mukesh thinks differently. The boy is filled with hope. His dream of being a motor-mechanic is still alive in his eyes.

He is willing to dare. Anees asks Mukesh if he also dreams of flying a plane. Mukesh replies in the negative. He is content to dream of cars, as few planes fly over Firozabad.

Conclusion of Lost Spring

Lost Spring summary gives us an analysis of the impoverished condition faced by many children that condemn them to a life of pain, oppression, and lack of education.