LOST SPRING- MAIN POINTS

Lost Spring

MAIN POINTS

1.     The narrator encounters Saheb every morning.

2.     He is  a rag picker who lives in Seemapuri at the border of Delhi.

3.     His parents came from Bangladesh. He searches for gold in the garbage dumps.

4.     He has never gone to school. Nor does he have a pair of shoes.

5.     His actual name is ‘Saheb-e-Alam’ which means lord of the universe. But he doesn’t understand its meaning.

6.     He roams the streets with an army of barefoot young ragpickers.

7.     They appear in the morning and disappear at noon.

8.     The ragpickers of Seemapuri live in structures of mud with roofs of tin and tarpaulin.

9.     There is no sewage, drainage or running water in colony.

10.                        These 10000 ragpickers don’t have any identity. They do have their ration cards to vote and buy grain.

11.                        Survival in Seemapuri means ragpicking.

12.                         Sahib finds sometimes a rupee, even a ten rupee note. There is always hope of finding more.

13.                        Garbage is wrapped in wonder for children; for the elders it is a means of survival.

14.                        Now haseb works in a tea stall getting 800 rupees and all meals.

15.                         He carries a canister which is heavier than the plastic bag he used to carry on his shoulder.

16.                        Sahib is no longer his own master.

17.                        Mukesh belongs to a family bangle makers. He insists on being his own master and wants to become a motor mechanic.

18.                        Mukewh lives in a dusty street of Firozabad.

19.                        Like his family, every other family in Firozabad is engaged in making bangles.

20.                        About 20000 children work illegally in the glass furnaces.

21.                        They live in hovels with crumbling walls.

22.                        Poor bangle makers know nothing except making bangle.

23.                        Mukesh and his family can’t change their trade.

24.                        All kinds and colours of bangles are made in Firozabad.

25.                        Mostly the bangle-makers end up losing their eyesight before they become adults.

26.                        Young men have o initiative and ability to dream. They can’t dream of organizing a cooperative.

27.                        There are two worlds. The one is the world of bangle-makers caught in the web of poverty.

The other world is of moneylenders, middlemen and policemen who exploit and torment them