Throwing the shoes

Thomas Bata has been famously described as one ‘born to shoe people’. So successfully did he, or rather the company founded by him, ‘shoe’ people that his four-letter surname became synonymous with shoes. Tagore’s poem on the discovery of shoes revealed how inconvenient a world without shoes was.

The feet are no mean or basal part. We respectfully touch the feet of our seniors, and in letters we address them as ‘sree charanesu’. In the past, it was the custom to drink padodak of elders. Vandana begins with the feet, i.e., pada vandana. To be securely blessed after a puja, we ask for charanamrita.

Shoes are hugely popular in phrase, folklore, idioms and songs. Famous among these are ‘One, two, buckle my shoe’, ‘goody two-shoes’, ‘comfortable as an old shoe’, ‘try walking in my shoes’, ‘to fill one’s shoes’, ‘the wearer knows the best where the shoe pinches’ (this one should be updated to — ‘the thrower knows the best who pinches him the most’), ‘let the other shoe fall’ and Nancy Sinatra’s song: “These boots are made for walking…”.

The weak-kneed throw themselves at the feet of their pet gurus, while some unforgiving souls throw the covering of their feet at those they love to hate. An angry jyathamashay’s throwing a kharam (wooden shoe) at an errant boy used to be considered an appropriate punishment.

But the flung shoe can sometimes be a prized possession as well. So angered was Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar by the true-to-life portrayal of the East India Company officials’ oppressive attitude towards the indigo planters in the enactment of Dinabandhu Mitra’s Nil-Kar that he aimed his chappals (slippers) at the ‘company official’. The actor took the slipper on his head as appreciation for his performance.

Exasperated by the inordinately delayed hearing of his case, an elderly litigant threw a sandal at a Kolkata High Court judge. But the latter, in a remarkable display of sympathy, condoned the lapse and took steps to expedite the pending case.

Shoes were often the last to be frisked, so precious items were smuggled through shoes. Perhaps the time is not far when press-conferences will be at par with temples and mosques and entry with shoes will be prohibited.

It is appropriate at this point to mention that in Hindu heaven, shoes are not a hit. No one, except Kartik, wears them.

Sujit K. Bhattacharyya