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LOST SPRING, , STORIES OF STOLEN CHILDHOOD By Anees, Jung, , GIST OF THE LESSON, , + The author examines and analyses the, impoverished conditions and traditions, , that condemn children to a life of exploitation, these children are denied an education and, forced into hardships early in their lives., , + The writer encounters Saheb - a rag picker, whose parents have left behind the life of, poverty in Dhaka to earn a living in Delhi., , + His family like many other families of rag, pickers lives in Seemapuri. They do not have, other identification other than a ration card., , + The children do not go to school and they are, excited at the prospect of finding a coin or, even a ten rupee note for rummaging in the, garbage., , + It is the only way of earning the life they live, in impoverished conditions but are resigned to, their fate., , + The writer is pained to see Saheb, a rag picker, whose name means the ruler of earth, lose the, , spark of childhood and roams barefooted with, , his friends., , + From morning to noon the author encounters, him in a tea stall and is paid Rs. 800 He sadly, realizes that he is no longer his own master, and this loss of identity weighs heavily on his, tender shoulders., , + The author then tells about another victim,, Mukesh who wants to be a motor mechanic., , + Hailing from Firozabad, the centre of India’s, bangle making and glass blowing industry, he, has always worked in the glass making

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industry., , - His family like the others there do not know, that it is illegal for children to work in such, close proximity to furnaces, in such high, , temperatures., , - They are exposed to various health hazards, like losing their eyesight as they work in, abysmal conditions, in dark and dingy cells., , * Mukesh’s father is blind as were his father, , and grandfather before him., , - They lead a hand to mouth existence as they, are caught in the vicious web of the money, lenders, middlemen, police and the traditions, , * So burdened are the bangle makers of, Firozabad that they have lost their ability, to dream unlike Mukesh who dreams of driving, , a Car.