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Lost Spring is the second prose chapter of Flamingo, the Class 12 English Core reader, and it is on the CBSE English Core syllabus for 2026-27.
What happens in Lost Spring?
Everything below comes from the NCERT text of Lost Spring, an excerpt from Anees Jung's book *Lost Spring, Stories of Stolen Childhood*.
Part one: Saheb in Seemapuri. The narrator meets Saheb every morning, scrounging for gold in the garbage dumps of the neighbourhood. His family left Dhaka after storms swept away their fields and home. Told to go to school, he says there is no school in his neighbourhood. The narrator half-jokingly offers to start one, and is embarrassed when he later asks if it is ready.
Saheb's full name, Saheb-e-Alam, means lord of the universe, the opposite of his life. He lives in Seemapuri, on the edge of Delhi, among squatters who came from Bangladesh in 1971. The text says 10,000 ragpickers live there in mud homes, without sewage, drainage or running water. For adults, garbage is survival; for children it is "wrapped in wonder", because a coin might turn up. By the end, Saheb works at a tea stall for 800 rupees and his meals. He carries the owner's steel canister instead of his own plastic bag, and is no longer his own master.
Part two: Mukesh in Firozabad. Mukesh wants to be a motor mechanic. His town, Firozabad, is the centre of India's glass-blowing industry, where families make bangles and the text says 20,000 children work illegally at hot furnaces, often losing the brightness of their eyes. His grandmother calls his father's poverty "his *karam*, his destiny"; her own husband went blind from the dust of polishing glass. The narrator sees two worlds holding families down: a web of poverty and the stigma of caste, and a vicious circle of moneylenders (*sahukars*), middlemen, police, bureaucrats and politicians. Mukesh still says he will walk to a garage and learn, though he will not dream as far as flying a plane.
What are the themes of Lost Spring?
NCERT's note at the end of the chapter states the theme as the plight of street children forced into labour early in life and denied schooling, with a sub-theme of the callousness of society and the political class to the sufferings of the poor (NCERT). Four arguments follow:
Childhood lost to poverty: Saheb's freedom shrinks from a bag on his shoulder to a canister he does not own.
Tradition as an excuse: barefoot children are explained by "tradition", and the narrator wonders if this is only an excuse to explain away a "perpetual state of poverty". Belief in *karam* works similarly.
Broken promises: the promise of a school "was not meant", and promises like it abound in Saheb's world.
A system that traps people: young men fear forming a cooperative because they would be "hauled up by the police".
How do you write the character sketches of Saheb and Mukesh?
Saheb: cheerful, curious and ready to accept what life gives him. He watches tennis through a fence and wears discarded shoes with a hole without complaint. His arc runs from a free if poor child to a paid worker who has "lost the carefree look".
Mukesh: determined and unlike his family. He insists on being his own master and, "looking straight into my eyes", says he will learn to drive a car. His dream is realistic: a garage, not an aeroplane.
What questions come from Lost Spring in the board exam?
The 2026-27 CBSE design gives Flamingo an extract question, short answers of 40-50 words and a long answer of 120-150 words (CBSE syllabus). Practice questions built on the NCERT exercises:
Is Saheb happy working at the tea stall? Explain. (short)
What explanations does the author offer for children not wearing footwear? (short)
Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry. (short)
What forces keep the bangle workers of Firozabad in poverty? (long)
A worked answer plan for question 4
Claim (20 words): poverty is kept in place by people and beliefs, not bad luck.
Inside the family (40 words): caste, belief in *karam*, and a father who could teach his sons only bangle-making.
Outside the family (40 words): sahukars, middlemen, police, bureaucrats and politicians; fear of arrest stops a cooperative.
Close with Mukesh (30 words): his wish to be a mechanic shows the circle can be broken by daring.
That is about 130 words, inside the CBSE limit of 120-150 words. Check names and numbers against the NCERT text before trusting a guide or chatbot; our piece on AI literature summaries that invent details shows why. For structure under time pressure, read how to handle case-based questions in board exams and moving from MCQ practice to full board answers.
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