LOST SPRING by ANEES JUNG - FIRST PART OF THE CHAPTER

THE LOST SPRING by ANEES JUNG

Spring is the Season of optimism and hope. Spring is the metaphor of childhood stage in a person’s life. From birth till late childhood, life for every child is almost the beginning of a bright and a shiny future. Childhood is featured by innocence, physical stamina and vitality, tremendous urge for the outdoors and a tremendous appetite for fun and play. Activities have no limits. It is also the stage for gaining skill and knowledge, learning and going to school.

The lost spring by Anees Jung is an expression of national shame of children condemned to poverty and a life of exploitation. The two protagonists of the chapter, Saheb-e-Alam and Mukesh lose their childhood in carrying the burden of poverty and illiteracy. In their bleak stories of exploitation, the author finds glimpses of resilience and fortitude.

‘Sometimes I find a Rupee in the garbage’

Saheb and his family have left their homes and green fields in Dhaka to settle in Seemapuri. They had left Dhaka because of storms and floods. They feel it is better to be without identity than going hungry.

Seemapuri is geographically close to Delhi, but its traditions, standard of life and people are far away from Delhi. Seemapuri was a deserted area when the Bangladeshis arrived here three decades ago. They were forced to come here due to the natural disasters in Bangladesh. They loved Seemapuri because they could survive here. They had food and shelter here.

The author’s description of the life of the rag pickers in Seemapuri is touching. 10,000 people have come as squatters, staying in structures of mud, with roofs of tin and tarpaulin, devoid of sewage, drainage or running water.  Squatters are persons who unlawfully occupy an uninhabited building or unused land. They have stayed there without any identity but food is more important than identity. Their fields in Dhaka could not give them food whereas being rag pickers, they don’t go hungry. In Seemapuri survival means rag picking. The elders have made it their profession for a fixed wages whereas for the children rag picking is a game of treasure-hunting. They work through the garbage with a hope that one day they would get a gold coin or a rupee note from the garbage heap.

Through years rag picking has acquired the proportions of a fine art. Like any other art form, rag picking possesses certain talents and rules. One needs guidance and inborn talents to be a successful rag picker. He should know where to find garbage, what to take, what to ignore, what time is best for it and so on. In Seemapuri every child is skilled in this art form.

Saheb-e-Alam doesn’t know the meaning of his name – lord of the universe-which he is not. He was a rag picker. He and his fellow rag pickers are barefooted and the reason one of them gives is his mother does not bring his shoes down from the shelf. The author has met many barefooted children roaming around. The reason is that it is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot. According to Anees Jung, it is just an excuse to explain their state of poverty.

Education has brought timely changes in many people’s lifestyle like the priest from Udipi and his son. A man from Udipi once told the author his own story when he was a boy and his father a priest in the temple. As a young boy he would go to school past this old temple and stop briefly to pray for a pair of shoes. Thirty years later when the author visited his town and the temple, she saw a lot of modern instances in the town and lifestyle of the people. The priest’s son now goes to school, wearing shoes and socks carrying a school bag. The author means to indicate the timely changes education brings to people and how the illiterate rag pickers remain unchanged, carrying the rotten traditions. The rag pickers have no way out of poverty since they have no chance to go to school and be educated. 

Saheb is now employed in a tea shop with a fixed wage of 800 rupees and all meals. He is not happy as he has lost his freedom as he is bound to the owner of the tea stall who is his master. He is no longer his own master.

The title ‘Lost Spring’ is justified in the first part as Saheb-e-Alam’s childhood – his spring time is lost first in picking rags and then in working for a master.