NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English (Flamingo) Chapter 2: Lost Spring
Complete solutions for Class 12 English Flamingo Chapter 2 – “Lost Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood” by Anees Jung: an original summary, theme and message, word meanings and every textbook exercise (Think as you read, Understanding the text, Talking about the text, Thinking about language, Things to do) answered in full, plus extra questions, MCQs and Assertion–Reason for the 2026–27 board exam. Questions are reproduced exactly as in the NCERT book; the summary and all answers are written originally.
Anees Jung (born 1944 in Rourkela) is a noted Indian author, journalist and columnist who spent her childhood and adolescence in Hyderabad and was educated in Hyderabad and the United States. Born to parents who were both writers, she began her career as a writer in India and went on to edit and write columns for major newspapers in India and abroad. The chapter “Lost Spring” is an excerpt from her book Lost Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood, in which she examines the grinding poverty and rigid traditions that condemn poor children to a life of exploitation. Writing with the sensitivity of a journalist and the eye of a social observer, she gives a human face to issues of child labour, caste and apathy.
Summary
“Lost Spring” is built around two episodes that expose how poverty steals the childhood of the poor. In the first, the author meets Saheb-e-Alam, a young ragpicker who scrounges through the garbage dumps of her neighbourhood. His family migrated from Dhaka after storms destroyed their fields, and they now live among ten thousand ragpickers in Seemapuri, on the edge of Delhi, without identity or permits but with ration cards. For these squatters, garbage is “gold” – a means of daily survival – while for the children it is wrapped in wonder. Saheb roams barefoot with his army of friends, longs to play tennis and study, but no school comes. By the end he works at a tea stall for 800 rupees and meals, yet has lost his carefree look; the steel canister he carries belongs to his employer, and Saheb is “no longer his own master”.
The second episode is set in Firozabad, the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry, where every other family makes bangles. The author meets Mukesh, who dreams of becoming a motor mechanic rather than continuing the family trade. Generations have worked around hot furnaces in dingy, dark cells, often losing their eyesight before adulthood; about 20,000 children labour illegally in these conditions. The bangle makers are trapped in a vicious circle of sahukars, middlemen, policemen, bureaucrats and politicians, and the “baggage” of caste and poverty is imposed on the child before he can resist it. Yet Mukesh dares to dream of a different future. Through these two stories Anees Jung shows childhoods crushed by poverty, tradition and an indifferent society.
Theme & message
The central theme is the loss of childhood (“lost spring”) among the poor – how grinding poverty and oppressive tradition push children into labour and rob them of education, play and choice. Anees Jung highlights the callousness of society and the political class towards the sufferings of the poor, the trap of caste (“a god-given lineage”) and the vicious circle of middlemen, money-lenders and corrupt officials that keeps the bangle makers of Firozabad in perpetual poverty. The message is one of awareness and hope: child labour must be ended through education and opportunity, and Mukesh’s daring to dream of being a motor mechanic shows that the cycle can, with will and support, be broken.
Word meanings
Word / Phrase
Meaning
scrounging
searching about for something usable, especially from rubbish
glibly
fluently but without thought or sincerity
hollow (advice)
empty, meaningless
perpetual
never-ending, continuous
squatters
people who settle on land or in buildings without legal right
desolation
a state of emptiness, ruin and bleak loneliness
periphery
the outer edge or boundary of an area
transit homes
temporary dwellings used while moving from place to place
canister
a metal container for carrying liquid or other goods
mirage
an illusion; something hoped for but unattainable
hovels
small, dirty, miserable dwellings
primeval
belonging to the earliest, most primitive ages
bahu
(Hindi) daughter-in-law of the house
karam
(here) fate or destiny
lineage
line of descent; ancestry
sanctity
sacredness; holy importance
suhaag
the married status of a woman; auspiciousness in marriage
soldering
joining metal/glass pieces by melting a connecting substance
imperishable
that cannot be destroyed (used of the cycle of poverty)
sahukars
money-lenders
vicious circle
a chain of events in which each problem worsens another
lament
a passionate expression of grief or sorrow
Think as you read
These are the boxed comprehension questions printed within the lesson, reproduced verbatim.
1. What is Saheb looking for in the garbage dumps? Where is he and where has he come from?
ANSWERSaheb is looking for anything of value in the garbage – coins, currency notes and useful odds and ends. He says, “Sometimes I find a rupee, even a ten-rupee note,” so for him garbage holds the hope of small treasure. He now lives in Seemapuri, a settlement on the periphery of Delhi. His family originally came from Dhaka (in Bangladesh); they left their green fields and home after repeated storms swept everything away, migrating to the big city in search of a living.
2. What explanations does the author offer for the children not wearing footwear?
ANSWERThe author records the common explanation that going barefoot is a “tradition” among the poor, not merely a lack of money. One boy says his mother did not bring his chappals down from the shelf; another remarks he would throw them off anyway. However, Anees Jung herself doubts this. She wonders whether calling it a tradition is only an excuse to “explain away a perpetual state of poverty” – in other words, a way of hiding the fact that these families simply cannot afford shoes.
3. Is Saheb happy working at the tea-stall? Explain.
ANSWERNo, Saheb is not happy at the tea stall. Although he now earns 800 rupees and all his meals, the author notices that his face has lost its carefree look. The steel canister he carries seems heavier than the light plastic bag of his ragpicking days, because the bag was his own while the canister belongs to the tea-shop owner. He has lost his freedom: he is now bound to a master and is “no longer his own master”. The small wage has cost him his independence and the careless joy of childhood.
1. What makes the city of Firozabad famous?
ANSWERFirozabad is famous for its bangles. It is the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry, where families have spent generations working around furnaces, welding glass and making bangles for the women of the whole country. Almost every other family in the city is engaged in this bangle-making trade.
2. Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry.
ANSWERWorkers, including thousands of children, slog in dingy, dark cells without air and light, near furnaces with very high temperatures. The dust from polishing glass and the constant work in dim conditions damage their eyes, so they often lose their eyesight before they become adults. Welding pieces of glass and soldering bangles by the flames of oil lamps also exposes them to burns and accidents. The illegal, unhealthy environment slowly destroys their health.
3. How is Mukesh’s attitude to his situation different from that of his family?
ANSWERMukesh dares to dream beyond the family trade. While his elders and the other bangle makers have accepted bangle-making as their unchangeable karam (destiny) and have lost the ability to dream, Mukesh insists on being his own master. He wants to become a motor mechanic and learn to drive a car, even though the garage is far from his home and he says he will walk there. His ambition shows initiative and hope, qualities that years of mind-numbing toil have killed in the rest of his family.
Understanding the text
1. What could be some of the reasons for the migration of people from villages to cities?
ANSWERPeople migrate from villages to cities mainly because village life can no longer support them. Natural disasters such as storms and floods destroy their fields and homes – as happened to Saheb’s family in Dhaka. Lack of grain, failing agriculture, unemployment and grinding poverty force them to seek work elsewhere. Cities seem to promise food, jobs and a better life. As the women in tattered saris say, they would rather live in the bleak settlements of the city, where they can at least feed their families, than in the fields that gave them no grain. The search for survival and even “gold” (a livelihood) drives this migration.
2. 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?
ANSWERYes, the text shows that promises made to poor children are rarely kept. The author herself, half-jokingly, asks Saheb whether he will come if she starts a school; he believes her eagerly, but the school never comes and she is embarrassed at having made a promise she never meant. She admits that “promises like mine abound in every corner of his bleak world.” This happens because such promises are made casually, out of momentary sympathy, without any real intention or plan to act. The poor have no one to hold accountable, so well-meaning but empty assurances keep their hopes alive while changing nothing.
3. What forces conspire to keep the workers in the bangle industry of Firozabad in poverty?
ANSWERSeveral forces combine to trap the bangle workers. First, the burden of caste and tradition – being born into the caste of bangle makers, they believe it is their god-given destiny and cannot dream of anything else. Second, a vicious circle of exploiters: the sahukars (money-lenders), the middlemen, the policemen, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and the politicians, who together impose a baggage on the child that he cannot put down. The middlemen trap the workers in debt; the police threaten them if they try to organise. Third, their own poverty and powerlessness – there is no leader among them, years of toil have killed all initiative, and the fear of being beaten or jailed prevents them from forming a cooperative. These forces keep generation after generation in poverty.
Talking about the text
1. How, in your opinion, can Mukesh realise his dream?
ANSWERMukesh can realise his dream of becoming a motor mechanic only with determination and a little outside support. His willingness to walk a long way to a garage to learn the trade shows the right spirit. He needs access to a garage that will train him, freedom from the family’s bangle work, and ideally help from government schemes, NGOs or vocational training programmes that rescue children from hazardous labour and teach them skills. Education and skill-training would let him break free of the caste-bound trade. Above all, his own refusal to accept bangle-making as his destiny, combined with social support that gives poor children a real choice, can turn his “mirage” into reality.
2. Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry.
ANSWERThe glass bangles industry is extremely hazardous. Workers labour in dark, airless cells beside furnaces with dangerously high temperatures, which can cause burns and heat-related illness. Continuous work in dim light and the fine glass dust from polishing damage their eyes, and many – including children – lose their eyesight before adulthood. Soldering and welding glass by the flames of flickering oil lamps add the risk of accidents. The cramped, unhygienic and illegal conditions slowly ruin the health of both children and adults engaged in the trade.
3. Why should child labour be eliminated and how?
ANSWERChild labour must be eliminated because it robs children of their childhood, education, health and dignity, condemning them to a lifetime of poverty and exploitation – exactly the “lost spring” the author mourns. It is also illegal and harms the nation’s future. It can be ended through the strict enforcement of laws banning child labour; free and compulsory quality education with mid-day meals and incentives to keep children in school; financial support and employment for poor families so they do not depend on their children’s income; rehabilitation and skill-training for rescued children; and public awareness campaigns. Action by the government, NGOs and society together can break the cycle.
Thinking about language
Although this text speaks of factual events and situations of misery it transforms these situations with an almost poetical prose into a literary experience. Below, each phrase or sentence is matched to its literary device (Hyperbole, Metaphor or Simile).
ANSWER1. “Saheb-e-Alam which means the lord of the universe is directly in contrast to what Saheb is in reality.” – Irony (a sharp contrast between the grand meaning of the name and the boy’s wretched reality).2. “Drowned in an air of desolation.” – Metaphor (the temple is spoken of as being “drowned” in desolation).3. “Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it, metaphorically.” – Metaphor (the social and economic distance is described as physical “miles”).4. “For the children it is wrapped in wonder; for the elders it is a means of survival.” – Metaphor (garbage is figuratively “wrapped in wonder”), with a pointed contrast/antithesis.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.” – Simile (her hands are compared to the tongs of a machine using “like”).6. “She still has bangles on her wrist, but no light in her eyes.” – Metaphor (“light in her eyes” stands for hope and joy that are gone).7. “Few airplanes fly over Firozabad.” – Metaphor (the absence of aeroplanes suggests how far high dreams and progress are from the town).8. “Web of poverty.” – Metaphor (poverty is described as an entangling web).9. “Scrounging for gold.” – Metaphor (the rubbish that is searched is figuratively called “gold”).10. “And survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking. Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of a fine art.” – Hyperbole (rag-picking is exaggerated to the level of a “fine art”).11. “The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulders.” – Metaphor (the canister’s “weight” symbolises the burden of bonded labour, not literal weight).
Things to do
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.
SAMPLE PARAGRAPH (construction workers)You never see the poor in this town. By day they toil, working cranes and earthmovers, squirreling deep into the hot sand to lay the foundations of chrome and glass towers that will one day shimmer in the skyline. By night they are banished to bleak labour camps at the outskirts of the city, in tin sheds with no fans, far from the air-conditioned flats they are building. The same hands that mix concrete for marble lobbies cannot afford a single room in those buildings. Children of these workers grow up on the edges of construction sites, breathing cement dust instead of attending school, their childhood poured into someone else’s dream home. The very luxury they create remains forever out of their reach – a paradox as cruel as the bright bangles of Firozabad made by people who go blind in the dark. The shining city rises on the bent backs of those who will never live in it. This contrast between the splendour of the product and the misery of the producer is found wherever the poor labour for the comforts of the rich – in diamond-polishing units, carpet looms and mines. Recognising this paradox is the first step towards demanding fair wages, safe conditions and dignity for the workers who build our world but are kept invisible within it. (Choose any one paradox you observe and write your own paragraph of 200–250 words.)
Extra questions
Short answer (30–40 words)
1. What does the title “Lost Spring” signify?
ANSWER“Spring” symbolises the joyful, carefree season of childhood. “Lost Spring” signifies how poverty, tradition and exploitation steal this childhood from poor children like Saheb and Mukesh, forcing them into labour instead of play and study.
2. Why is garbage described as “gold” for the people of Seemapuri?
ANSWERFor the ragpickers of Seemapuri, garbage is their daily bread and a roof over their heads. By sorting and selling scrap they earn enough to survive, so the rubbish is as precious to them as gold – it means food and shelter.
3. What is the “mirage” in Mukesh’s life?
ANSWERMukesh’s dream of becoming a motor mechanic and driving a car is the mirage. It rises like an illusion amid the dust of Firozabad’s streets – a hope that seems distant and almost unreachable for a boy born into a poor bangle-making family.
4. Who is Savita and what does the author wonder about her?
ANSWERSavita is a young girl in a drab pink dress who sits soldering pieces of glass beside an elderly woman. As her hands move mechanically, the author wonders whether she knows the sanctity of the bangles she makes – that they symbolise an Indian woman’s suhaag.
5. Why can the bangle makers not organise themselves into a cooperative?
ANSWERThey fear that if they organise, they will be hauled up by the police, beaten and jailed for doing something “illegal”. There is no leader among them, and years of toil have killed their initiative, so they remain trapped by middlemen and officials.
Long answer (100–120 words)
6. Describe the living conditions of the ragpickers of Seemapuri.
ANSWERThe ragpickers of Seemapuri live on the periphery of Delhi, yet are metaphorically miles away from the city’s comforts. About ten thousand of them, squatters who came from Bangladesh in 1971, dwell in structures of mud with roofs of tin and tarpaulin, devoid of sewage, drainage or running water. They have lived there for over thirty years without an identity or permits, but with ration cards that put their names on voters’ lists and let them buy grain. For them, food is more important than identity. Survival means rag-picking, which has become a fine art passed to the children. They would rather live here than in the fields that gave them no grain, choosing food over a homeland.
7. “Two distinct worlds” trap the bangle makers of Firozabad. Discuss.
ANSWERAnees Jung identifies two distinct worlds that imprison the bangle makers. The first is that of the family, caught in a web of poverty and burdened by the stigma of the caste into which they are born; they accept bangle-making as their unchangeable destiny. The second is a vicious circle of the sahukars, middlemen, policemen, keepers of law, bureaucrats and politicians, who exploit them and crush any attempt to rise. Together these worlds impose a baggage on the child that he cannot put down; he accepts it as naturally as his father did. To do anything else would mean to dare, and daring is not part of his upbringing – which is why a flash of ambition in Mukesh is so striking.
8. How does Anees Jung turn a grim social reality into a moving literary experience?
ANSWERThough the chapter deals with the bleak facts of poverty and child labour, Anees Jung transforms them into literature through her almost poetical prose. She uses vivid metaphors (“web of poverty”, garbage as “gold”, “no light in her eyes”), similes (hands moving “like the tongs of a machine”), irony (a boy named “lord of the universe” living in filth) and hyperbole (rag-picking as “a fine art”). She personalises large problems through individual stories – Saheb and Mukesh – so readers feel their pain. Telling details, contrasts and a compassionate, reflective tone turn statistics into living people, making the social message both convincing and deeply moving.
MCQs
1. Who is the author of “Lost Spring”?
(a) Khushwant Singh (b) Anees Jung (c) Selma Lagerlof (d) William Douglas
2. Where did Saheb’s family originally come from?
(a) Firozabad (b) Udipi (c) Dhaka (d) Delhi
3. Seemapuri is situated on the periphery of which city?
(a) Mumbai (b) Delhi (c) Kolkata (d) Hyderabad
4. What does the name “Saheb-e-Alam” mean?
(a) Lord of the universe (b) King of bangles (c) Child of God (d) Master of garbage
5. How much is Saheb paid at the tea stall (plus all his meals)?
For each, choose: (a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A; (b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A; (c) A is true but R is false; (d) A is false but R is true.
1. Assertion (A): For the ragpickers of Seemapuri, food is more important than an identity.
Reason (R): They have lived there for over thirty years without permits but with ration cards that let them buy grain.
2. Assertion (A): Saheb is happier and freer working at the tea stall than as a ragpicker.
Reason (R): The steel canister he carries belongs to the shop owner, and he has lost his carefree look.
3. Assertion (A): Mukesh’s attitude differs from that of the rest of his family.
Reason (R): He dares to dream of becoming a motor mechanic instead of accepting bangle-making as his destiny.
4. Assertion (A): The bangle makers cannot easily form a cooperative to improve their lives.
Reason (R): They fear being beaten and jailed by the police, and have no leader among them.
5. Assertion (A): The children of Firozabad often lose their eyesight before they become adults.
Reason (R): They work in dark, airless cells and their eyes get more adjusted to the dark than to the light outside.
Answer key: 1-(a) 2-(d) 3-(a) 4-(a) 5-(a)
Note for 2: A is false (Saheb is not happier or freer at the tea stall), while R is true and in fact shows the opposite – hence option (d).
Exam tips
How to score in “Lost Spring”
Learn the two episodes separately – Saheb of Seemapuri (ragpicking, migration from Dhaka, the tea stall) and Mukesh of Firozabad (the bangle industry, caste, the dream of being a mechanic). For 3- and 6-mark answers, always link facts to the theme of “stolen childhood”. Memorise key terms exactly – Seemapuri, suhaag, karam, sahukars, vicious circle, “web of poverty” – and use one short quotation where possible (e.g. “Garbage to them is gold”) to lift your answer. Keep word counts tight: 30–40 words for short answers, 120–150 for long ones. Mention the two “distinct worlds” whenever a question asks why the workers stay poor.
FAQs
Who are the two main child characters in “Lost Spring”?
The two children are Saheb-e-Alam, a ragpicker in Seemapuri near Delhi, and Mukesh, a boy from a bangle-making family in Firozabad who dreams of becoming a motor mechanic.
What is the theme of “Lost Spring”?
The theme is the loss of childhood among the poor – how poverty, caste and tradition force children into labour and deny them education, play and choice, while society and the political class remain indifferent.
Why is the chapter titled “Lost Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood”?
“Spring” stands for the carefree joy of childhood. The title shows that this happy season is “lost” or stolen from poor children like Saheb and Mukesh, who must work instead of enjoying their early years.
Questions are reproduced verbatim from the NCERT Flamingo textbook; the summary and all answers are written originally by ClearStudy. No copyrighted lesson text has been reproduced.
