Anees Jung is an Indian female author, journalist, and columnist who writes about women's lives in India and abroad. She was born in Rourkela and comes from an aristocratic family in Hyderabad. Jung is known for her travel diaries and books that focus on interviews with women about their everyday lives. The chapter describes the author's visit to the town of Firozabad, known for its glass blowing industry. During her visit, she interacts with a boy named Mukesh and sees the miserable living conditions of families involved in the bangle making business, including Mukesh's family, who live in extreme poverty despite years of hard work.

1. THE RAIN MAN
-- Abhishek Singh

2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 2
ANEES JUNG
ANEES JUNG IS AN INDIAN FEMALE AUTHOR, JOURNALIST AND COLUMNIST
WHO WRITES FOR MAJOR NEWSPAPERS IN INDIA AND ABROAD. SHE WAS
BORN IN ROURKELA AND BELONGS TO AN ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY IN
HYDERABAD. HER FATHER, NAWAB HOSHYAR JUNG, WHO WAS A
RENOWNED SCHOLAR AND POET, WORKED AS THE MUSAHIB (ADVISER) TO
THE LAST NIZAM (PRINCE) OF HYDERABAD STATE. AND HER MOTHER AND
BROTHER ARE ALSO WELL-KNOWN URDU POETS.
JUNG HIT THE HEADLINES WITH THE PUBLICATION OF ‘UNVEILING INDIA IN
1987’, WHICH IS PRIMARILY A TRAVEL DIARY THAT FOCUSES ON INTERVIEWS
WITH WOMEN. SHE WENT ON WRITE MANY SUBSEQUENT BOOKS ON THE
SAME TOPIC, AND TALKED TO WOMEN ABOUT THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES, AND
WROTE BOOKS LIKE ‘NIGHT OF THE NEW MOON: ENCOUNTERS WITH
MUSLIM WOMEN IN INDIA’ (1993) AND SEVEN SISTERS (1994). HER BOOK
‘BREAKING THE SILENCE (1997) INCLUDES CONVERSATIONS ON WOMEN’S
LIVES FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

3. 3
 This chapter is divided into two parts.
 The first part describes the plight of the poor rag pickers of FIROXAVThe
Second part describes the miserable conditions of the bangle-makers of
Firozabad.
 First hand experience with poverty and traditions prevailing in some parts of
India.
 The Title: Lost Spring: Stories of Stolen Childhood
 The story, “Lost Spring” describes the pitiable condition of poor children
INTRODUCTION

4.  The story begins with an interaction with Mukesh
 Mukesh insists on being a Motor Mechanic
 So Anees (Author) asks him if he knows anything about
cars
 Mukesh replies no but he wants to learn to drive a car
 the author feels that his dream is like a Mirage
 The interaction engages readers
 question arises in the minds of readers
 ‘why she finds the dream of Mukesh as a Mirage?’

5.  Why the author felt so is because:
 every second family engaged in the business of bangle
making
 Firozabad - the centre of India's glass blowing industry
 generations after generations have been involved in this
business
 SDGHSFSDGlight
 In such conditions Mukesh’s dream to be a motor mechanic is
mirage for author.
WHY THE DREAM IS A MIRAGE?

6.  Mukesh volunteers to take the author home as his
house is being rebuilt
 walk down stinking lanes choked with garbage
 houses are small and dirty constructions with wobbly
doors with no windows
 families of humans and animals coexist in a primitive
state
 they enter a half built Shack
 one part of which is attached with dead grass
 Here the author depicts a woman’s plight in a bangle
makers’ family
 a frail young woman is cooking the evening meal for
the whole family
 she is the wife of Mukesh’s elder brother
 not much older in years but she has a respect of a bahu
 she veils her face when Mukesh’s father enters
AUTHOR’S VISIT TO MUKESH'S
HOUSE

7.  The Author Contemplates over the hard work of
Mukesh’s Father
 Mukesh’s father has toiled hard all his life
 first as a tailor and then as a bangle maker
 still unable to renovate his house or send his two sons
to school
 managed to teach them art of bangle making
 Mukesh’s grandmother has seen her husband go blind
with the dust from polishing the glass bangles
 Grandmother believes in destiny
 says ‘can a god given lineage ever be broken’
HARD WORK OF MUKESH'S
FATHER

8.  In dark hutments sit boys and girls
 their eyes are more adjusted to the dark than to the
light outside
 often end up losing their eyesight
 a young girl Savita in a drab pink dress sitting beside
an elderly women
 The girl’s hands move like a machine
 The author wonders if she understands the sanctity of
the bangles for Indian women
 the sad irony will suddenly down upon her
 the old lady has not enjoyed even one full meal in her
entire lifetime
 one wonders if Mukesh’s father has achieved what
many have failed to achieve
 he has a roof over on his head.
YOUNG BOYS AND GIRLS IN
FIROZABAD

9.  nothing has changed over the years
 years of hardship have killed all hopes and dreams
 the author asks a group of young men to organize
themselves in a Cooperative
 Learns the horrific truth
 if they get organized they are taken to jail and are
beaten up
 there is no leader among them
 the author finds two distinct worlds in Firozabad
 one is the exploited family caught in a vertex of
poverty and the stigma of the caste in which they were
born
TWO DISTINCT WORLDS IN FIROZABAD

10.  the author is filled with joy when she finds that Mukesh
thinks differently
 the boy is filled with hope
 his dreams of being a Motor Mechanic is still alive in
his eyes
 he is willing to dare
 Anees asks Mukesh if he also dreams of flying a plane
 Mukesh replies in the negative
 he is content to dream of cars as few planes fly over
Firozabad.
MUKESH IS FILLED WITH HOPE

11.  looms like a mirage - seems that it will be true in the future but actually it will not be so
 amidst – in the middle of
 glass-blowing industry - industry related to making glass
 furnaces - a closed room or container where heat is produced
 welding - the process of joining metal or glass pieces by heating them
 Slog – work hard
 Beam – shine brightly
 Stinking – bad smell
 Hovels – slums
 Crumbling – falling down
 Wobbly – unsteady
 Coexisting - present at the same time and place
 Primeval – prehistoric
 Shack – a roughly built hut
 Thatched – covered with dry grass
 Sizzling - make a hissing sound when frying or cooking
DIFFICULT WORDS AND PHRASES

12. THANK YOU