What could be some of the reasons for the migration of people from villages to cities?

The beauty of the glass bangles of Firozabad contrasts with the misery of people who produce them.

This paradox is also found in some other situations, for example, those who work in gold and diamond mines, or carpet weaving factories, and the products of their labour, the lives of construction workers, and the buildings they build.

l Look around and find examples of such paradoxes.

l Write a paragraph of about 200 to 250 words on any one of them. You can start by making notes.

What could be some of the reasons for the migration of people from villages to cities?

Would you agree that promises made to poor children are rarely kept? Why do you think this happens in the incidents narrated in the text?

How, in your opinion, can Mukesh realize his dream?

Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry.

What is Saheb looking for in the garbage dumps? Where is he and where has he come from?

What forces conspire to keep the workers in the bangle industry of Firozabad in poverty?

Although this text speaks of factual events and situations of misery it transforms these situations with an almost poetical prose into a literary experience. How does it do so? Here are some literary devices:

• Hyperbole is a way of speaking or writing that makes something sound better or more exciting than it really is.

For example Garbage to them is gold.

• A Metaphor, as you may know, compares two things or ideas that are not very similar. A metaphor describes a thing in terms of a single quality or feature of some other thing; we can say that a metaphor “transfers” a quality of one thing to another. For example The road was a ribbon of light.

• A simile is a word or phrase that compares one thing with another using the words “like” or “as”. For example: As white as snow.

Carefully read the following phrases and sentences taken from the text. Can you identify the literary device in each example?

(a) Saheb-e-Alam which means the lord of the universe is directly in contrast to what Saheb is in reality.

(b) Drowned in an air of desolation.

(c) Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it, metaphorically.

(d) For the children it is wrapped in wonder; for the elders, it is a means of survival.

(e) As her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine, I wonder if she knows the sanctity of the bangles she helps make.

(f) She still has bangles on her wrist, but not light in her eyes.

(g) Few airplanes fly over Firozabad.

(h) Web of poverty.

(i) Scrounging for gold.

(j) And survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking. Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of a fine art.

(k) The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulders.

Why should child labour be eliminated and how?

Is Saheb happy working at the tea-stall? Explain.