EXPLANATION

– The author’s encounter with a boy named Saheb-e-Alam who visits the nearby
garbage dump and look for valuables.
– The boy tells her that he has left his home
in Bangladesh long ago and does not have
many memories of it.
– Their fields and homes had been swept away
by storms. They had come to the
big city to look for “gold”.
– The author asked him why he does the work of rag picking to which he replies
that he has nothing to do.

– The author advises him to go to

school but the boy says that there was
no school in his neighbourhood.
– The author asks whether he would like
to come to school if she opens one to
which the boy says he would definitely
come
– His name Saheb-e-Alam meaning the Lord of the Universe is ironic.
– The author sees him roaming with other ragpickers. All of them are barefoot
while few of them are wearing different shoe in both feet
– Some say that their mother has not given them shoes , some say that they don’t
like to wear shoes while the others say that they have a tradition of not wearing
the shoes
– The author feels that not wearing shoes is not a tradition but a way to hide their grinding poverty
that had gripped them
– One winter morning the writer saw Saheb standing by the fence of a club. He
was watching a tennis game being played by two young men. Saheb liked the
game but could not play it. He told the writer that he went inside the club when
it would be closed. He was allowed to take swings by the guard there.
– The writer saw that Saheb was also wearing tennis shoes. They did not look
appropriate with his dress which was worn out and had faded. She figured out
that he had got them from a garbage dump. Although due to the garbage
dump, Saheb’s dream of wearing shoes had been partially fulfilled but his desire
to play tennis would never be fulfilled.
– One morning the writer met Saheb who was on his way to the milk booth. He
was holding a steel container. He told her that he had got a job at the nearby tea
stall. He
would earn eight hundred rupees
a month and get meals too.
STORY 2- I want to drive a car
– The writer met a boy named Mukesh who aspired to become a motor mechanic. “Do you know

anything about cars?” she asked.

– “I will learn to drive a car,” he answers, looking straight into her eyes.
– Mukesh’s family was involved in the profession of glass bangle – making. They
did not know that it was unlawful to force children to work in such glass
furnaces. The work places were hot, dark closed rooms without ventilation. They
often ended up losing their eyesight also.
– Mukesh was happy as he took the writer to his home. The house where Mukesh lived
was partially constructed hut.
– As Mukesh’s father entered the house, the daughter-in-law hid behind the wall and
covered her face behind her veil. It was a tradition for the daughters-in-law to hide
their face in the presence of the older male members of the family.
– Mukesh’s grandmother said that her son was destined to make bangles as it had
been their family profession. She had seen her husband become blind due to the dust
from polishing the glass bangles. She said that their family had got this art of bangle
making from God and so they had to carry on the tradition.
– They were born in a particular caste which had to follow the profession of bangle
making. All their life they had just seen these glass bangles.
– There was a young girl by the name of Savita. She was sitting with an elderly
woman and they were joining pieces of glass to make bangles. The writer
wondered if Savita knew that the bangles were a good omen for a woman’s
wifehood.
– The writer suggests them to form a cooperative. She talked to a group of young
men to get out of the clutches of the cruel middlemen who had trapped their
elders. The men said that if they dared to do something like that, they would be
dragged and beaten up by the police and sent to jail.
– The writer felt that as they had no leader, they could not think of doing things
differently.
– The writer envisioned that there were two separate worlds – one was of such
families who were stuck in poverty and the pressure of doing the traditional
profession according to the caste in which they were born. The other world is a
never-ending cycle of moneylenders, middlemen, policemen, law keepers,
government officials and politicians. Both of these worlds had forced the young
boys to follow the family traditions.
– Mukesh repeated that he would be a motor mechanic. He wanted to go to
a garage and learn the job. The writer asked that as the garage was at a
distance from his home, Mukesh insisted that he would walk up to it. The
author asked him if he dreamt
of flying planes. As not many planes flew
over Firozabad and he had only seen cars
moving around in Firozabad, his dreams
were restricted up to them.
 EXTRACT BASED QUESTIONS
1. “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.
• Answer The Following On The Basis Of Your Reading Of The
Text:
a. Who was embarrassed? Why?
b. What promise did the author make?
c. Was the author serious about their education? How do you know?
d. Pick the antonym of ‘unabashed’ from the above extract.
 EXTRACT BASED QUESTIONS
2. “I want shoes,” says a third boy who never owned a pair all his life.
Travelling across the country I have seen children walking barefoot, in cities,
on village roads. It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot, is one
explanation. I wonder if this is only an excuse to explain away a perpetual
state of poverty.
• Answer The Following On The Basis Of Your Reading Of The Text:

a. What the author has observed travelling across the country?

b. Why these children remain barefoot? Is it their tradition or some other
reason?
c. What is the traditional reason the author wants to explain?
d. Pick a word from the extract that means ‘everlasting’.
 EXTRACT BASED QUESTIONS
3. “Can a god given lineage ever be broken?” she implies. Born in the caste
of bangle makers, they have seen nothing but bangles—in the house, in the
yard, in every other house, every other yard, every street in Firozabad.
• Answer The Following On The Basis Of Your Reading Of The Text:
a. Who is talking about her/his god given lineage?
b. What is the job that most of the people in Firozabad has taken up?
c. What does god given lineage refers to?
• Pick a word from the extract that means ‘race’.
 SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
1. How is Saheb’s name full of irony?
2. Explain the use of literary device(s) in the sentences “an army of barefoot boys who appear
like the mornings and disappear at noon.”
3. Why do slums like Seemapuri mushroom around big cities?
4. Saheb wanted to be a master of his own destiny. Comment.
5. How are the tennis shoes a dream come true for Saheb?
6. What instances in the chapter reveal that infrastructurally, Firozabad is a neglected city?
7. What has Mukesh’s father achieved in life despite years of hard-breaking labour?
8. How does Mukesh’s grandmother view the family occupation of bangle making and its
poverty?
9. How is Mukesh different from his peers?

10.Why can’t the bangle makers organise themselves into a cooperative?

 LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS
1. For most women, bangles are dreams in glass but for bangle makers of
Firozabad they are a vicious circle they cannot wriggle out of. Comment.
2. Politicians exploit all people and situations to their own benefit. Comment,
keeping in view the situation of refugees in Seemapuri.
3. If we take pledge to listen to the voice of our conscience, the vice of child
labour and exploitation would be easily eradicated from our society.
Comment.
4. Whose has a better attitude to life- Saheb-e-Alam’s or Mukesh’s? Support
your answer with reasons.

5. What positive values can you learn from the lives of Saheb and Mukesh?
How will they help you in determining the quality of your life and in shaping
your future?
 THE END
PREPARED BY
NEETU UPADHYAY