Flamingo(Lost Spring) Extract/Passage

 

NCERT Solutions For Class 12 English

Flamingo

Lost Spring– Stories of Stolen Childhood (Anees Jung)

Extracts/Passage

 

 Read the given passages and answer the questions that follow:

Q1)  “Saheb left his home long ago. Set amidst the green fields of Dhaka, his home is not even a distant memory. There were many storms that swept away their fields and homes, his mother tells him.” That’s why they left, looking for gold in the big city where he now lives.

 

1)  Who is the author of these lines?

Ans:The author is the Annes Jung.

 2. Who are ‘they’?

Ans: ‘they’ refers to the family of Saheb.

 3. Why do they leave their home?

Ans: They are compelled to left their home by the storms that devastrated their home and field in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 4. Where do they live now?

Ans: Now they live in the shanty home in the Seemapuri, Delhi.

 5. What do they do for livelihood?

Ans: They have adopted the job of ragpicking for the livelihood.

 

Q2) “It takes longer to build a school”. I say, embarrassed at having made a promise that was not meant. But promises like mine abound in every corner of his bleak world.”

 1.From where are these lines taken?

Ans:  These lines are taken from the prose “Lost Spring” written by Anees Jung.

 2. Who is referred to as ‘I’?

Ans: The author Anees Jung is referred to as ‘I’.

 3. Why is the writer embarrassed?

AnsThe speaker promised Saheb that she would open a school. She committed that Sahib and his friends would get admission in it. She feels embarrassed, though, because she did not do it and Saheb inquired about her school.

 4. Find out the word from the passage which means ‘plenty’?

Ans:The word ‘abound’ means ‘plenty’ .

  

Q3. My acquaintance with the barefoot ragpickers leads me to Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it, metaphorically. Those who live here are squatters who came from Bangladesh back in 1971.

 1.Who are the acquaintances of the narrator?

Ans: The acquaintances of the narrator are the Saheb and his friends.

 2. Where is there residence?

Ans: They reside at the outskirts of Delhi, a slum region called Seemapuri.

 3. Where did they come from?

Ans: They came from Bangladesh in 1971.

 4 Why did they left their homeland?

Ans Strom had devastated their fields. They had nothing to eat. So, they left their home in search of livelihood.

 

Q4 “Mukesh insists on being his own master. I will be a motor mechanic”., he announces.

 1.Where does Mukesh live?

Ans:The Mukesh lives the bangle making city Ferozabad.

 2. Who is the author of these lines?

Ans: The author of these lines is Anees Jung.

 3. What is his family profession?

Ans: His family profession, like every other family in Ferozabad, is bangle making.

 4. What is the dream of Mukesh?

Ans: Mukesh dreams of becoming a motor mechanic.

 

Q4)  His dream looms like a mirage amidst the dust of streets that fill his town Firozabad, famous for its bangles. Every other family in Firozabad is engaged in making bangles. It is the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry where families have spent generations working around furnaces, welding glass, making bangles for all the women in the land it seems.

 1.Whose dreams are being spoken about?

Ans: Here author is talking about the dreams of Mukesh.

 2. What is his dream? Why is it unusual?

Ans: His dream is to be a motor mechanic. Everyone in his locality has accepted bangle making as their fate. Mukesh dreams big.

 3. What is working condition of bangle makers?

Ans: They work in dingy confinements in front of hot furnaces. Most of the children lost their eyes before attending adulthood.

 4) Who are the obstacles in their growth?

Ans: Politicians, middlemen, bureaucrats, and police officers are the obstacles in their development.