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Ans: The
glass bangle industry of Firozabad employs children and they work in very
unhealthy and hazardous conditions. They are made to work in the glass furnaces
with high temperatures, in dingy cells without air and light. Almost twenty
thousand children work in the hot furnaces, often losing the brightness of
their eyes. Many workers become blind while polishing the glass bangles. Many
children lose their eyesight before they become adults.
Ans: The
small rag pickers scrounge heaps of garbage for some coin, note or valuable
things. Sometimes they do find a rupee or even a ten rupee note. Then they hope
to find more. They search excitedly. For children, garbage is wrapped in
wonder. For the grown-ups it is a means of survival. So, the attitudes of these
two generations differ. The children finds it mysteriously wonderful package as
their continuous search leads them to grab a small fortune. But for the adults,
it is a means of livelihood and is a compulsion to search through the garbage.
Hence, garbage has two different meanings.
Ans: The
people migrate from villages to cities because of natural disasters and
resulting poverty. City life holds more opportunities of earning livelihood and
at the same time it provides more of basic amenities than what the villages can
offer. In this story, Saheb and his family left Dhaka to become rag pickers in
Seemapuri.
Ans: I
agree that promises made to poor children are rarely kept. It is easy to say to
poor children that they should be in school but will we ever be in a position
to start a school. It is easier said than done, as they are lured to give
votes, expecting to get some favours in return.
Ans: Saheb
lives near the garbage dumps in Seemapuri on the outskirts of Delhi. His family
came from Bangladesh. Survival in Seemapuri means rag picking. Garbage to them
is gold. Saheb looks for coins in the heaps of garbage. He even finds a ten
rupee note sometimes. When one can find a silver coin in a heap of Garbage, one
can’t stop scrounging for there is hope of finding more.
Ans: Travelling
across the country the author has observed children walking barefoot in cities and
on village roads. It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot is
one explanation. The author wonders if this is only an excuse to explain a
constant state of poverty.
Ans: Saheb
gets a job at a small tea stall. He is paid Rs 800 along with all his meals.
There seems to be some improvement in his condition but his face loses the
carefree look. The steel canister that he carries belongs to the owner of the
shop. It seems heavier than the plastic bag he used to carry as a rag picker.
The symbolic meaning implies that Saheb in spite of having constant monthly
income is not free to work according to his own free will as he used to do when
he was a rag picker. So ‘Saheb is no longer his own master’.
Ans: Firozabad
is famous for bangles. Every other family in Firozabad is engaged in making
bangles. It is the centre of India’s glass blowing industry where families have
spent generations working around furnaces, welding glass, making bangles for
women all over India.
Ans: Mukesh
insists on being his own master. He has seen the poverty, the dangers and the
sub-human living conditions of the glass bangle industry. He wants to be a
motor mechanic. His hope, resourcefulness and determination to break free are
admirable ‘his dream looms like a mirage’, amidst the dust of streets. His thinking
with a positive attitude is so different from his family which is struggling to
survive the burden of the lineage. He wants to rebuild his destiny and do not
want to become a glass bangle maker.
Ans: The
workers in the bangle industry have remained in poverty and years of mind
numbing labour has destroyed their initiative and ability to dream. They cannot
organize themselves into a cooperative as they are fallen in a vicious circle
of middlemen who trapped their fathers and forefathers. The police beat them up
if they get organized; there is no leader who can take up their cause. The
author identifies the forces that conspire against them. They are the stigma of
caste, a destructive cycle of the Sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the
keepers of law, the bureaucrats and the politicians.
Ans: Most
of the young rag pickers do not wear footwear. The author noticed this. Some of
them were even without chappals. Some wanted to wear shoes though some say that
it is tradition to stay barefoot. The author attributes it to scarcity of
money. It is poverty that does not allow them to possess footwear.
Ans: Mukesh
is the son of a poor bangle maker of Firozabad, where every other family is
engaged in making bangles. His poor father has been unable to renovate the
house or educate his sons. Mukesh wants to be his own master and dreams to
become a motor mechanic. He wants to drive a car. But the conditions under
which he exists, this dream is like an illusion, a mirage.
Ans: The
bangles made in Firozabad are of every hue (colour) born out of the rainbow.
They are sunny, gold, paddy green, royal blue, pink and purple. While the boys
and girls work in dark dingy huts next to the flames of oil lamps around the
high heat of the furnaces, blowing glass, welding and soldering it to make
bangles.
Ans: The
bangle-makers are unaware of the fact that child labour is illegal and have
been banned by law. The industry is hazardous to their health. Many children
become blind before reaching their adulthood. If the law were enforced
strictly, 20000 children would be released from working hard throughout the day
at hot furnaces with high temperatures.
Ans: Savita
is a young girl. She is wearing a drab pink dress. She is soldering pieces of
glass. Her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine. She is innocent
and does not understand the sanctity of the bangles that she is making. She is
very efficient in her work.
Ans: Most
of the young bangle makers are subjected to exploitation at the hands of the
middle men. They are frightened of the police who usually haul them up, beat
them and drag them to jail for doing illegal things. There is no leader to help
them out. Their fathers too are old and helpless. Hence, the idea of organizing
themselves into a cooperative becomes too far-fetched.
Ans: The lesson ‘Lost
Spring’ describes the apathy of the bangle-makers on two planes. Firstly, it is
the plight of the street children forced into labour early in life and denied
the opportunity of studying in schools. Secondly, the glass industry has its
own hazards. The illegal employment of very young children and the pathetic
working conditions. Over and above, it is the apathy and callousness of society
and the political class to the sufferings of the poor that makes us feel
sympathetic towards these bangle makers. They work in glass furnaces with high
temperatures. Their dingy cells have no light, no ventilation. Boys and girls
work under these conditions while welding pieces of coloured glass to make
bangles. Their eyes are more adjusted to the dark than to the light outside.
They often lose their eyesight at a young age.
The other reason
that the poverty stricken bangle makers suffer is because of the exploitation
at the hands of the middle men and politicians. They do not work to bring an improvement
in their conditions; instead they get brutally beaten up by the police. They
are unable to organize themselves. Hence, their life is full of sufferings both
physical and emotional.
Ans: Seemapuri the rag pickers shanty is
just in the outskirt of Delhi but it is far away from Delhi so far as Delhi’s
glitter and amenities are concerned. Here the squatters of Bangladesh who came
after 1971 war live in structures of mud with roof of tin or tarpaulin. There
is no sewerage, drainage or pipe water that Delites enjoy.
Q.19. Through the years rag picking has acquired the ‘proportion of a fine art’ in Seemapuri. Justify the statement.
Ans: The means of survival of
migrants of Bangladesh in Seemapuri is rag picking. Garbage to them is gold.
Like a fine art that has no end in appealing the sense of beauty the rag
picker’s scrounging the garbage is a never ending process which provide them
their daily bread day after day.
Q.20. Does the rag picking mean the same thing for parents and children? Give reasons for your answer.
Ans: No, rag picking is not the
same for parents and children. For children it is wrapped in wonders where as
for parents it is the means of survival.
Q.21. Why was not Saheb happy on getting a job?
Q.22. Why don’t the bangle makers of Firozabad organise themselves?
Ans:
The bangle makers are trapped in the
vicious circle of middlemen and police. If they organise a co operative they
will be hauled up, beaten and dragged to jail by police for doing something
illegal. There is no leader to help them out from their misery. They are the
victims of greed and injustice.