Flamingo Prose Chapter 2 Lost Spring English - Flamingo Prose Chapter 2 Lost Spring

Listening to them, I see two distinct worlds-- one of the family, caught in a web of poverty, burdened by the stigma of caste in which they are born; the other a vicious circle of the sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and the politicians.Together they have imposed the baggage on the child that he cannot put down. Before he is aware, he accepts it as naturally as his father. To do anything else would mean to dare. And daring is not part of his growing up. When I sense a flash of it in Mukesh I am cheered. “I want to be a motor mechanic,' he repeats.
He will go to a garage and learn. But the garage is a long way from his home. “I will walk,” he insists. “Do you also dream of flying a plane?" He is suddenly silent. "No," he says, staring at the ground. In his small murmur there is an embarrassment that has not yet turned into regret. He is content to dream of cars that he sees hurtling down the streets of his town. Few airplanes fly over Firozabad.
1.Who all have “imposed the baggage on the child that he cannot put down”?
A. Only the family
B. Sahukars, middlemen, policemen, law keepers, bureaucrats, and politicians
C. Only the policemen
D. Only the middlemen
2.What is not a part of growing up of these children?
A. Accepting the baggage of poverty
B. Being burdened by the stigma of caste
C. Daring
D. Dreaming
3.What does the narrator ask Mukesh?
A. Do you dream of driving a car?
B. Do you dream of flying a plane?
C. Do you want to be a bangle maker?
D. Do you want to be a sahukar?
4.What is Mukesh content to dream of?
A. Flying a plane
B. Driving a car
C. Becoming a bangle maker
D. Becoming a sahukar
5.Find the word from the passage which means 'fantasy'.
A. Embarrassment
B. Regret
C. Hurdle
D. Dream
6.Find the word from the passage which is opposite to 'artificially'.
A. Naturally
B. Embarrassingly
C. Silently
D. Cheerfully

The cry of not having money to do anything except carry on the business of making bangles, not even enough to eat, rings in every home. The young men echo the lament of their elders. Little has moved with time, it seems, in Firozabad. Years of mind-numbing toil have killed all initiative and the ability to dream.
"Why not organise yourselves into a cooperative?” I ask a group of young men who have fallen into the vicious circle of middlemen who trapped their fathers and forefathers. “Even if we get organised, we are the ones who will be hauled up by the police, beaten and dragged to jail for doing something illegal,” they say.
1.What is the cry that rings in every home?
A. The cry of joy
B. The cry of having enough money
C. The cry of not having money to do anything
D. The cry of success
Answer: C. The cry of not having money to do anything
2.What has been the result of years of mind-numbing toil performed by the bangle-making families of Firozabad?
A. Increased initiative
B. Enhanced ability to dream
C. Improved living conditions
D. Killed all initiative and the ability to dream
3.Who suggests the young men to organize themselves into a cooperative?
A. Mukesh
B. The old man with a flowing beard
C. The narrator
D. Saheb
4.What is the young men's response to this?
A. They eagerly agree and form a cooperative
B. They express concern about the police and legal issues
C. They immediately take action and organize themselves
D. They laugh at the suggestion
5.Find the word from the passage which means 'resound'.
A. Cry
B. Lament
C. Organise
D. Ring
6.Find the word from the passage which is opposite to ‘rejoice'.
A. Cry
B. Lament
C. Resound
D. Organise

Savita, a young girl in a drab pink dress, sits alongside an elderly woman, soldering pieces of glass. As her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine, I wonder if she knows the sanctity of the bangles she helps make. It symbolises an Indian woman's suhaag, auspiciousness in marriage.
It will dawn on her suddenly one day when her head is draped with a red veil, her hands dyed red with henna, and red bangles rolled onto her wrists. She will then become a bride. Like the old woman beside her who became one many years ago. She still has bangles on her wrist, but no light in her eyes.
“Ek waqt ser bhar khana bhi nahin khaya,” she says, in a voice drained of joy. She has not enjoyed even one full meal in her entire lifetime - that's what she has reaped! Her husband, an old man with a flowing beard, says, “I know nothing except bangles. All I have done is make a house for the family to live in.” Hearing him, one wonders if he has achieved what many have failed in their lifetime. He has a roof over his head!
1.Who is Savita? What is she doing?
A. An elderly woman making bangles
B. A young girl in a drab pink dress, soldering pieces of glass
C. A bride with red bangles
D. A woman enjoying a full meal
2.What does the narrator wonder about?
A. If Savita will become a bride
B. If Savita knows the sanctity of the bangles
C. If the old woman has light in her eyes
D. If the old man has achieved what many have failed in their lifetime
3.What all has the old woman reaped in her lifetime?
A. Joy and happiness
B. Red bangles
C. Full meals
D. Suffering and lack of enjoyment even in one full meal
4.What many have failed to achieve in their lifetime?
A. Making bangles
B. Becoming a bride
C. Having a roof over their head
D. Enjoying a full meal
5.Find the word from the passage which means 'piousness'.
A. Sanctity
B. Auspiciousness
C. Joy
D. Soldering
6.Find the word from the passage which is opposite to 'sowed'.
A. Planted
B. Harvested
C. Reaped
D. Nurtured

It is his karam, his destiny, says Mukesh's grandmother, who has watched her own husband go blind with the dust from polishing the glass of bangles. “Can a god-given lineage ever be broken?" she implies. Born in the caste of bangle makers, they have seen nothing but bangles in the house, in the yard, in every other house, every other yard, every street in Firozabad.
Spirals of bangles sunny gold, paddy green, royal blue, pink, purple, every colour born out of the seven colours of the rainbow lie in mounds in unkempt yards, are piled on four-wheeled handcarts, pushed by young men along the narrow lanes of the shanty town. And in dark hutments, next to lines of flames of flickering oil lamps, sit boys and girls with their fathers and mothers, welding pieces of coloured glass into circles of bangles. Their eyes are more adjusted to the dark than to the light outside. That is why they often end up losing their eyesight before they become adults.
1.What has been called as his destiny?
A. Mukesh's education
B. Mukesh's job
C. Mukesh's fate
D. Mukesh's choice
2.What is the colour of the bangles?
A. Silver
B. Gold, paddy green, royal blue, pink, purple
C. Black
D. Transparent
3.What work is being done in dark hutments?
A. Cooking
B. Studying
C. Making bangles
D. Watching television
4.Why do they often lose their eyes even before becoming adults?
A. Lack of sleep
B. Exposure to dark environments
C. Bright light outside
D. Long hours of work with colored glass
5.Find the word from the passage which means ‘ancestry'.
A. Lineage
B. Destiny
C. Fate
D. Karam
6.Find the word from the passage which is opposite to 'well-ordered'.
A. Tidy
B. Organized
C. Unkempt
D. Neat

He stops at the door of one such house, bangs a wobbly iron door with his foot, and pushes it open. We enter a half-built shack. In one part of it, thatched with dead grass, is a firewood stove over which sits a large vessel of sizzling spinach leaves. On the ground, in large aluminium platters, are more chopped vegetables. A frail young woman is cooking the evening meal for the whole family. Through eyes filled with smoke she smiles.
She is the wife of Mukesh's elder brother. Not much older in years, she has begun to command respect as the bahu, the daughterin-law of the house, already in charge of three men her husband, Mukesh and their father. When the older man enters, she gently withdraws behind the broken wall and brings her veil closer to her face.
As custom demands, daughters-inlaw must veil their faces before male elders. In this case the elder is an impoverished bangle maker. Despite long years of hard labour, first as a tailor, then a bangle maker, he has failed to renovate a house, send his two sons to school. All he has managed to do is teach them what he knows-the art of making bangles.
1.What is there in one part of the house?
A. A bed
B. A television
C. A firewood stove
D. A washing machine
2.Who is cooking the evening meal for the family?
A. Mukesh
B. Mukesh's elder brother
C. Mukesh's mother
D. Mukesh's sister
3.What does the custom demand?
A. Wearing modern clothes
B. Veiling faces of daughters-in-law before male elders
C. Eating with hands
D. Ignoring customs and traditions
4.What has Mukesh's father failed to do?
A. Renovate a house
B. Send his two sons to school
C. Teach his sons the art of bangle making
D. All of the above
5.Find the word from the passage which means 'weak'.
A. Frail
B. Strong
C. Sturdy
D. Resilient
6.Find the word from the passage which is opposite to ‘rich'.
A. Affluent
B. Prosperous
C. Wealthy
D. Impoverished

Justify the title of the lesson “Lost Spring”

How is the bangle industry of Firozabad a curse for the bangle makers?

Why do you think Mukesh is content to dream of cars and doesn’t dream of flying a plane?

Do the poor have the right to dream? Why then does the author call Mukesh's dream 'a mirage'?

How do you think the author’s life might have been impacted after her interactions with the children and their families mentioned in ‘Lost Spring’?

Who is Mukesh? What is his dream?

Why could the bangle makers not organise themselves into a cooperative?

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

Why had the ragpickers come to live in Seemapuri?

To which country did Saheb’s parents originally belong? Why did they come to India?