Lost Spring — Anees Jung
Introduction
"Lost Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood" is a non-fiction narrative by Anees Jung, a journalist and author who spent years documenting the lives of India's poor. The NCERT chapter presents two excerpts: the first titled "Sometimes I find a rupee in the garbage" focuses on Saheb-e-Alam, a ragpicker in Delhi who migrated from Dhaka (Bangladesh); the second titled "I want to drive a car" follows Mukesh, a child from a bangle-making family in Firozabad. Together, both narratives expose the grinding cycle of poverty, child labour, and crushed aspirations in contemporary India.
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Excerpt 1: Saheb and the Barefoot Children of Seemapuri
Saheb-e-Alam ("Lord of the Universe") lives in Seemapuri, a settlement on the outskirts of Delhi where refugees from Bangladesh have lived since 1971. Despite his grand name, Saheb is a child ragpicker, scavenging garbage heaps for anything of value — a coin, a rupee note, a scrap of food.
- Key observations:
- The children in Seemapuri go barefoot not merely because they cannot afford shoes, but because Saheb says "it is a tradition to stay barefoot." The author ironically reflects: this custom has transcended poverty into a habit — or perhaps it is poverty itself rationalised as tradition.
- When the author jokingly offers to open a school, Saheb takes her seriously and appears the next morning ready to attend. This small moment reveals both the child's yearning for education and the cruel gap between casual adult remarks and the desperate hopes of the poor.
- By the end, Saheb is employed at a tea stall — earning 800 rupees a month. But he has lost something: he no longer has the "master of his own time" freedom that ragpicking gave him. He is now someone else's servant. The author notes the steel canister Saheb now carries looks "heavier than the plastic bag" of his ragpicking days — not physically, but emotionally.
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Excerpt 2: Mukesh and the Bangle-Makers of Firozabad
Firozabad is known as the bangle capital of India — home to thousands of families who work in glass bangle-making. The work is done in dark, dingy rooms called furnaces, where children and adults alike labour in extreme heat, endangering their eyesight and lungs.
Mukesh is a boy who dares to dream of becoming a motor mechanic — a dream that is both modest by middle-class standards and audacious given where he comes from.
- Key observations:
- The bangle-makers are trapped in a vicious circle: they borrow money from the Sahukars (moneylenders), who keep them in perpetual debt; the middlemen take the profit; the police harass them if they organise; and politicians exploit their votes without delivering change.
- Savita, a young girl, sits soldering bangles — her hands move mechanically, her face blank. She has never seen the colours of the bangles she makes from the outside; she only knows the furnace's orange glow.
- The author contrasts Mukesh's determination with the "web of poverty" — generations of bangle-makers accept their fate as God's will. But Mukesh refuses to surrender. He wants to walk to a garage and learn to repair cars, even though the garage is far away.
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Key Themes
1. Poverty and Child Labour
Both narratives show children robbed of childhood — one sifting garbage, the other blinded by glass dust. The "lost spring" of the title refers to childhood (spring = new life, freshness) that is taken away before it blooms.
2. The Cycle of Inherited Poverty
Firozabad's bangle-makers illustrate how poverty is inherited and self-perpetuating. The Sahukar-middleman-policeman-politician nexus ensures no individual family can break free alone.
3. Dreams vs. Reality
Mukesh's dream of being a mechanic is the central symbol of hope against hopelessness. The author neither dismisses nor confirms whether the dream will survive — she simply records it, leaving the reader to reflect.
4. The Irony of Names and Appearances
Saheb's name means "Lord of the Universe" yet he rummages through garbage. Seemapuri means "city of borders/limits" — an apt name for a colony defined by its confinement. These ironies are deliberate and structural.
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Common mistakes
- Saheb is from Bangladesh, not any other country — he is a refugee from Dhaka.
- The two parts are separate but thematically linked — do not mix up Saheb and Mukesh's stories.
- Firozabad is about bangles, not textiles — a common mix-up in examinations.
- The "web" Anees Jung refers to involves multiple agents (moneylenders, middlemen, police, politicians) — naming only one will lose marks in long-answer questions.
- Mukesh's dream is not to make bangles — he explicitly wants to be a motor mechanic, which represents a break from family tradition.
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Summary
Through two real-life portraits, Anees Jung shows the tragedy of stolen childhood in India. Saheb, a Bangladeshi refugee, scavenges garbage for survival, and even his small freedom is eventually lost when he takes a job. Mukesh, a bangle-maker's son in Firozabad, dares to dream of a different life as a mechanic — but faces a formidable system of exploitation. Both children represent India's lost spring: talent, energy, and dreams trapped in cycles of poverty and labour.