Lost Spring (Part2)

Important Questions (Part 2)

1. What does Mukesh aspire for?

Mukesh aspires to become a motor mechanic. He doesn’t want to work in a factory making bangles like every other family in Firozabad. He dreams of driving a car. He wants to live a life of his choice and not toil under inhuman conditions making bangles like all others in his family.

2. Explain

His dream looms like a mirage amidst the dust of streets…..

Mukesh’s dream is a very unlikely dream under the bleak circumstances he lives in. It is more like an illusion that hovers over the stinking lanes, shabby houses with wobbly doors & no windows. It seems almost impossible for him to break free from his plight and do what he wants to.

3. How would it affect the people of Firozabad if laws are enforced?

Almost every family at Firozabad is engaged in making bangles. Even the children are engaged in this hazardous work. Generations and generations of these families have worked around furnaces, welding glass, making bangles for all the women in the land it seems. Since it is illegal for children under the age of fourteen to work, if this law is enforced, it could bring about 20000 children out of the hot furnaces where they slog throughout the day, in dingy cells & amidst high temperatures, often losing their eyesight.

4. Describe the lanes of Firozabad which led to Mukesh’s house?

Mukesh agreed to take the author to his home. As he led the author towards his house, they walked down the stinking lanes choked with garbage. The houses were dilapidated with crumbling walls, wobbly doors, no windows, crowded with families of humans and animals coexisting in a primeval state.

5. What was the condition of Mukesh’s house?

The condition of Mukesh’s house and family was pitiable. His house was a half-built shack. In one part of it, thatched with dead grass, was a firewood stove over which sat a large vessel of sizzling spinach leaves. On the ground, in large aluminum platters, were more chopped vegetables. A frail young woman was cooking the evening meal for the whole family. Through eyes filled with smoke she smiles.

6. “It is his karam, his destiny,” says Mukesh’s grandmother. Why do you think she says so?

Mukesh’s grandmother believes in fate and destiny. She is of the opinion that no one can escape his destiny. She had seen her husband go blind with the dust from polishing the glass of bangles. Same has happened with her son also. Despite long years of hard labor, first as a tailor, then a bangle maker, he has failed to renovate a house, and send his two sons to school. All he has managed to do is teach them what he knows — the art of making bangles. She feels it is the destiny of her son and her grandsons to be born in the family of bangle makers. According to her, it is God’s will, which cannot be refused. All they have seen and done is bangle making and this is what will continue in future too.

7. Under what condition do the bangle makers work?

The bangle makers of Firozabad work in dark hutments, next to lines of flames of flickering oil lamps, where boys and girls sit with their fathers and mothers, welding pieces of coloured glass into circles of bangles. The place is dingy without air and light with high temperature due to the heat from the glass furnaces. Their eyes are more adjusted to the dark than to the light outside. That is why they often lose their eyesight before they become adults.

8. Who is Savita? What does the author say about her?

Savita is a young girl who also makes bangles like Mukesh. As she was soldering pieces of glass, the author saw her hands moving like the tongs of a machine. Looking at her, the author wondered if she knew the sanctity of the bangles she was making. These bangles symbolize auspiciousness in marriage and one day she too would wear these bangles on her wrists like many other women there.

9. “All I have done is make a house for the family to live in.” What makes the author wonder at this statement?

The husband of the old woman sitting beside Savita told the author that he had not known anything else than making bangles. And during his lifetime he had just managed to make a house for his family. The author wondered as if it was a feat that he could achieve but not many like him. The bangle makers were so ruthlessly caught in the vicious cycle of poverty that thinking or doing something beyond two meals a day was impossible for them and this man had managed to build a house.

10. How does the elderly woman sitting alongside Savita describe her plight? Why does the author wonder after listening to it?

The elderly woman sitting alongside Savita lamented at her plight. The work of bangle making had drained all joy from her life. She rued that bangle making had given them nothing, she had not even enjoyed one full meal in her entire lifetime.

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11. What keeps holding the bangle makers in this business?

Lack of money, lack of enterprise, lack of education and fear of losing what they have to moneylenders & middlemen force the bangle makers to stay in this business. They have not ever done anything else and don’t even have enough to eat. They are so terribly caught in this situation that even the young men echo the lament of their elders and don’t take any initiative or dream of doing something else.

12. Little has changed in Firozabad with time. Why?

Abject poverty, mind-numbing toil, lack of enterprise, lack of education and fear of losing what they have to moneylenders & middlemen have prevented the bangle makers from doing something else. The world outside their bleak world has progressed a lot in means of education, facilities and living conditions but things have not changed in Firozabad with time. Young men have lost all initiative and they don’t even dream to fight and improve their lot. They are entangled in the loop of poverty, apathy, greed and injustice.

13. Why didn’t the people of Firozabad organize themselves into a cooperative?

Organizing themselves into a cooperative would mean taking an initiative and having a will to do something to improve their lot. But the bangle makers of Firozabad have lost all initiative. They have fallen into the vicious circle of middlemen who had trapped their fathers and forefathers and now they are the victims. Being illiterate, poor and without any leader is their biggest weakness. Even if they try to do something like this, they are hauled by the police, beaten and dragged to jail for doing something illegal. They suffer at the hands of moneylenders, police, bureaucrats, leaders and only lament over their condition that moves from poverty to apathy to greed and to injustice.

14. The author talks about two distinct worlds. What are they and what does she mean by it? Or

What forces conspire to keep the workers in the bangle industry of Firozabad in poverty?

The author talks about two distinct worlds, one the poverty stricken family burdened by the stigma of caste and the other a vicious circle of the sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the law keepers, the bureaucrats, and the politicians. These illiterate people believe in destiny and fate. It is their belief that they cannot break away from a profession that is chosen by God for them that is why they have taken birth in the family of bangle makers. The stigma of caste is so much that even if they think of doing something else, the society doesn’t let them by reminding them about their caste and their fate.

The other world is the world of powerful people, who know how to take advantage of the weak and poor. Caught up between these two worlds, the bangle makers of Firozabad have accepted their plight.

15. Together they have imposed the baggage on the child that he cannot put down. Discuss.

The above statement reveals the plight of the children living in Firozabad. The people of Firozabad are engaged in bangle making which has subjected them to utter poverty. Because of illiteracy & lack of initiative, they have never thought of doing something else. They have been trapped in the vicious circle of the sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the law keepers, the bureaucrats, and the politicians. The same had happened to their fathers and forefathers. Years of hard toil has given them nothing and all they worry is to arrange a proper meal for their family. And now this baggage has been imposed on the child that he cannot put down.

16. How, in your opinion, can Mukesh realize his dream?

Though it seems difficult for Mukesh to realize his dream, it is not impossible. He is determined and knows his limitations. Therefore, he doesn’t dream of something that is completely out of his reach. He doesn’t dream of flying an airplane or even owning a car. His dream is to become a motor mechanic and learn to drive. For this he is ready to go to a garage and learn. The garage is a long way from his home but with his conviction and commitment, he will be able to realize his dream.

17. Give the significance of the given statement.

He will go to a garage and learn. But the garage is a long way from his home. “I will walk,” he insists.

Literally the statement points at the distance that Mukesh will have to cover to go to the garage and get training as a mechanic. But metaphorically, it furthers the obstacles, the difficulties that Mukesh has to surpass to reach his dream. Because of these difficulties, his dream might become a distant desire. But under both the cases Mukesh is ready to walk and take up challenges as they approach him.

18. Few airplanes fly over Firozabad. What is the significance of this line?

Mukesh, though poverty stricken and trapped in the web of bangle making, dares to dream of becoming a motor mechanic. He even wants to drive a car. But airplanes are out of his reach. It is a distant dream that is almost impossible for him to realize. Mukesh can relate to cars which he sees on the roads around his slum. He is content with cars only. Airplanes symbolize something that is out of their reach, something far-fetched and far away from reality. People of Firozabad have never thought of such unrealistic things. Airplanes are a distant reality for the people of Firozabad.