NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Flamingo Chapter 2: Lost Spring

Chapter at a glance

Think as you read

Question C1

What is Saheb looking for in the garbage dumps? Where is he and where has he come from?

Answer

Saheb is looking for gold in the garbage dumps — anything valuable such as a coin or a rupee note, or things that can be sold (rags, scrap). He is in Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi. He has come from Dhaka, Bangladesh, where storms swept away their fields and homes (in 1971).

Saheb searches the garbage dumps for “gold” — coins, notes or anything saleable. He lives in Seemapuri on the edge of Delhi and has come from Dhaka, Bangladesh, after storms destroyed his family’s fields and home.

Question C2

What explanations does the author offer for the children not wearing footwear?

Answer

1. One explanation is that it is a tradition to stay barefoot — “It is not lack of money.”
2. The author feels that this is only an excuse to explain away a perpetual state of poverty.
3. She recalls a story of a poor boy who prayed for shoes and, when he got them, a boy in Udipi did not pray for shoes; poverty is the real reason.
4. Saheb’s friend says his mother did not bring shoes down from the shelf; another says he will throw them off when he gets them. Many children cannot afford shoes.

Some say staying barefoot is a tradition, not lack of money, but the author feels this is only an excuse to explain away perpetual poverty — the children simply cannot afford shoes.

Question C3

Is Saheb happy working at the tea-stall?

Answer

No. Saheb is paid ₹800 and all his meals, but he has lost his freedom. He is no longer his own master. “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.” His face has lost the carefree look.

No. Though he earns ₹800 and meals, he has lost his freedom; the steel canister he carries belongs to his employer and feels heavier than his own ragpicker’s bag, and his carefree look is gone.

Question C4

What makes the city of Firozabad famous?

Answer

Firozabad is famous for its glass bangles — it is the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry. Families have spent generations working around furnaces, welding glass and making bangles for all the women in the land.

Firozabad is famous for its glass bangles; it is the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry.

Question C5

Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry.

Answer

Workers, including about 20,000 children, work in glass furnaces with high temperatures, in dingy cells without air and light. They work long hours near flickering oil lamps, welding glass pieces. Many lose their eyesight before they become adults; the dust from polishing glass also harms their eyes; there are risks of burns and lung diseases. Child labour in such hazardous industries is illegal.

Workers, including children, labour near high-temperature furnaces in dark, airless cells, under flickering lamps; many lose their eyesight before adulthood, and they face burns and respiratory damage.

Question C6

How is Mukesh’s attitude to his situation different from that of his family?

Answer

Mukesh’s family has accepted their fate; they believe that bangle-making is their destiny (karam), caste-ordained, and they cannot escape it. His grandmother says, “It is his karam, his destiny.” His father and elder brother continue in the same trade. Mukesh, however, insists on being his own master; he dreams of becoming a motor mechanic and is willing to walk to a garage far away to learn to drive a car. He has the courage to dream and break the cycle.

His family accepts bangle-making as their destiny (karam) and has resigned itself to poverty, but Mukesh wants to be his own master and dreams of becoming a motor mechanic, showing courage to break free.

Understanding the text

Question U1

What could be some of the reasons for the migration of people from villages to cities?

Answer

1. Natural disasters – floods, storms and droughts destroy fields and homes (Saheb’s family fled storms in Dhaka).
2. Poverty and unemployment in villages; lack of land and work.
3. Search for livelihood – cities offer more jobs, even as ragpickers or labourers.
4. Better facilities – food, education, health care and a chance of a better life.
5. Social discrimination and indebtedness in villages.

People migrate to cities because of natural disasters that destroy fields and homes (as with Saheb’s family), poverty, unemployment and landlessness in villages, the search for jobs, and the hope of better food, education and health care.

Question U2

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?

Answer

Yes. In the text, the author half-jokingly asks Saheb if he would come to her school if she started one; he agrees, but she has no school to start — her promise is hollow. Saheb later asks, “Is your school ready?” and she feels embarrassed. Similarly, the poor are promised development by politicians and officials, but promises are not fulfilled.

Why it happens: 1. People make casual promises to poor children without seriousness, to pacify them. 2. There is indifference and insensitivity of society towards the poor. 3. Politicians make promises for votes; there is lack of will and resources. 4. The poor have no power to demand fulfilment.

Yes. The author casually offered to start a school for Saheb but never could, leaving her embarrassed when he asked about it. Such promises are made carelessly, without seriousness, because of society’s indifference to the poor, and because the poor have no power to demand their fulfilment.

Question U3

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

Answer

1. Vicious circle of the sahukars (moneylenders), middlemen, policemen, keepers of law, bureaucrats and politicians – together they impose a burden on the workers. The middlemen and sahukars exploit them; the police harass them if they try to organise themselves into cooperatives (they are beaten and jailed).
2. Caste and tradition – the stigma of the caste in which they are born; they believe making bangles is their karam (destiny).
3. Lack of education and awareness; no leadership.
4. Low wages and long working hours; no alternative skills.
5. Fear and apathy – they have lost the ability to dream; “burdened by the stigma of caste in which they are born”, and “a vicious circle of the sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and the politicians”.

They are trapped by a vicious nexus of sahukars, middlemen, policemen, bureaucrats and politicians who exploit and suppress them (punishing attempts to form cooperatives), by the stigma of caste and belief in fate (karam), and by illiteracy, low wages and apathy that kill their ability to dream.

Talking about the text

Question T1

How, in your opinion, can Mukesh realise his dream?

Answer

1. Determination and hard work – Mukesh must hold on to his dream and work hard.
2. Learning the skill – he can learn motor repairing at a garage as an apprentice and through vocational training institutes (ITIs).
3. Education – he needs basic education; government schemes for free education and scholarships can help.
4. Support – NGOs working against child labour, government schemes (skill development, loans for small businesses), and supportive family members can help him.
5. Breaking free from tradition – he must resist family and caste pressure.

Mukesh can realise his dream through determination and hard work, by learning motor repair as an apprentice or at an ITI, getting basic education through free schooling and scholarships, and with support from NGOs, government skill and loan schemes and his family, while resisting caste and family pressure.

Question T2

Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry.

Answer

(As in C5.) Workers sit near furnaces at very high temperatures in dark, ill-ventilated hutments, working long hours. The intense heat and the dust cause loss of eyesight — many children become blind before adulthood; there are burn injuries, respiratory and lung diseases, exhaustion and stunted growth. Children lose their childhood, education and health.

Extreme heat from furnaces, dark and airless workplaces, long hours, glass dust and flickering lamps cause blindness, burns, lung diseases, exhaustion and stunted growth, robbing children of health, education and childhood.

Question T3

Why should child labour be eliminated and how?

Answer

Why: 1. It robs children of their childhood, play and education. 2. It harms their physical and mental health (as in Firozabad furnaces). 3. It perpetuates poverty and illiteracy; children grow into unskilled adults. 4. It is a violation of human rights and the law (Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act; RTE Act).

How: 1. Strict enforcement of laws against child labour; punishment of employers. 2. Free and compulsory education (Right to Education Act), mid-day meals, scholarships. 3. Poverty alleviation – employment and fair wages for adults so that families do not depend on children’s earnings. 4. Rehabilitation of rescued children; NGOs (e.g. Bachpan Bachao Andolan). 5. Awareness among parents and society; consumers should avoid products made by child labour.

Child labour must end because it steals childhood, education and health, perpetuates poverty and violates rights. It can be eliminated through strict enforcement of laws, free compulsory education with mid-day meals and scholarships, adult employment and fair wages, rehabilitation of rescued children with NGO help, and public awareness.

Thinking about language

Question L1

Carefully read the following phrases and sentences taken from the text. Can you identify the literary device in each example? (1) Saheb-e-Alam which means the lord of the universe is directly in contrast to what Saheb is in reality. (2) Drowned in an air of desolation. (3) Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it, metaphorically. (4) For the children it is wrapped in wonder; for the elders it is a means of survival. (5) As her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine, I wonder if she knows the sanctity of the bangles she helps make. (6) She still has bangles on her wrist, but not light in her eyes. (7) Few airplanes fly over Firozabad. (8) Web of poverty. (9) Scrounging for gold. (10) And survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking. Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of a fine art. (11) The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulders.

Answer

1 irony; 2 metaphor/hyperbole; 3 metaphor; 4 metaphor (antithesis); 5 simile; 6 metaphor; 7 metaphor/irony; 8 metaphor; 9 metaphor/hyperbole; 10 hyperbole; 11 metaphor (contrast).

Things to do

Question D1

The beauty of the glass bangles of Firozabad contrasts with the misery of people who produce them. This paradox is also found in some other situations, for example, those who work in gold and diamond mines, or carpet weaving factories, and the products of their labour, the lives of construction workers, and the buildings they build. Look around and find examples of such paradoxes. Write a paragraph of about 200 to 250 words on any one of them.

Answer

(Sample paragraph — the paradox of construction workers.)

Builders without homes

Our city boasts gleaming glass towers, luxury apartments and shopping malls that rise higher every year. Yet the men and women who build them live in the shadows. By day they toil under the scorching sun, carrying bricks on their heads, mixing cement and climbing rickety bamboo scaffolding without helmets or safety belts. By night they return to makeshift tin sheds at the edge of the site, without proper water, toilets or electricity. Their children play in the dust among heaps of sand, missing school, as the family moves from site to site. Most of them are migrants from distant villages, recruited by contractors who take a cut of their meagre daily wages. The apartments they build will sell for crores of rupees, yet they cannot dream of owning even a small room. When the building is complete, they are not allowed past the gates they constructed; a security guard checks their identity. The marble floors and air-conditioned lobbies hide the sweat and sometimes the blood of those who laid them. It is a cruel paradox that those who create shelter for others remain homeless themselves. Like the bangle-makers of Firozabad, their labour produces beauty and comfort, but their own lives remain trapped in poverty and insecurity. Society must ensure them fair wages, safety, housing and education for their children.

Sample: construction workers build luxury towers and malls but live in tin sheds without water or toilets, earn meagre wages through contractors, work without safety gear and cannot afford the homes they build — a paradox like that of Firozabad’s bangle-makers.

Writing

Question Wr1

As you have read, a large population works in unorganised sectors like garbage pickers, bangle makers, vegetable sellers, etc. How do you think workers in unorganised sectors can take advantage of digital infrastructure promoted through the Digital India Programme? Interview some people working in the unorganised sector to collect their views and prepare a report.

Answer

Report: Digital India and the Unorganised Sector

By A Student Reporter, 26 October 20XX

To understand how digital infrastructure can help unorganised workers, I interviewed six people in my locality — two vegetable vendors, a ragpicker, a domestic worker, a construction labourer and a tailor.

Findings: 1. Digital payments – both vegetable vendors use UPI/QR codes. Ramesh, a vendor, said, “Earlier, I lost sales because of change problems; now customers pay by phone, and I get money directly in my bank account.” This also gives them a record of income useful for getting loans. 2. Bank accounts and direct benefits – most had Jan Dhan accounts linked to Aadhaar, through which they receive subsidies and benefits directly (DBT). 3. Social security – the domestic worker had registered on the e-Shram portal with help from an NGO, giving her an identity card and access to accident insurance; the construction worker was unaware of it. 4. Access to markets and information – the tailor gets orders through WhatsApp and showcases her work on social media; the ragpicker sells scrap to a recycling app at fairer prices. 5. Loans – vendors had heard of the PM SVANidhi scheme for street vendors’ working-capital loans.

Challenges: lack of smartphones and internet, low digital literacy, fear of fraud, language barriers and lack of awareness.

Suggestions: digital literacy camps, help desks at Common Service Centres, simple apps in local languages, NGO support, and awareness campaigns.

Conclusion: Digital India can empower unorganised workers by increasing incomes, financial inclusion and social security, provided they receive training and support.

A report based on interviews: unorganised workers benefit from UPI payments, Jan Dhan–Aadhaar-linked accounts and direct benefit transfers, e-Shram registration for social security, WhatsApp and online markets, and PM SVANidhi loans; but lack of smartphones, digital literacy and awareness, and fear of fraud are barriers, so training camps, CSC help desks and local-language apps are needed.

Topic checklist

• ☒ Saheb and Mukesh — comprehension (C1–C6)
• ☒ Migration, broken promises, exploitation (U1–U3)
• ☒ Child labour and dreams (T1–T3)
• ☒ Literary devices (L1)
• ☒ Paradox paragraph and Digital India report (D1, Wr1)

Total questions answered: 15 of 15