Boot Polish.

I am the kind of person, who ,when in conversation on the phone, questioned , what's New?,usually ends up replying, "i took a bath today". Once one has this bare idea about me, one can guess how often i shine my shoes.

The last time i remember indulging in the act was when my placements were on. So my shoes are a veritable combination of dust leather, grime etc. Of late i need to wear them daily, a consequence of being in employment. And i do have a job which involves fair bit of traveling in Mumbai. The fastest medium of traveling in Mum continues to be sub urban trains also referred to as locals.
Locals use locals to travel locally. Smartie me.

So one has to use the stations often. Their is this old Johny Lever Song ..Joota polish karega...
Be it as it may, the other day, i had those moments when i try to pump money back in the economy and try to alleviate people above the BPL . So i apprehensively put my foot forward for a polish..and was satisfied by the experience. Next i handed a 5 rupee coin to the protagonist expecting some change back. And no he doesn't even look at me. I gulp the affront and tell him excuse me..He says saab paanch rupaya lagta hai. Viola shit..5 rupees for a simple boot polish.

So i decide , no more caring for the economy when it is filled with these looters. I have proudly stopped using their services.

You see different people use different sales pitch, like the 3 sugar cane juice walas( they have adjacent shops) at Andheri station keep shouting.. bolo..bolo..ad infinitum. Similarly Polish walas keep banging their brush on their pedestal ( wooden box uses as a holding device to keep a person's feet in position when the shoe is being polished.)

In an ideal world they would go on with their sales pitch and me with my traveling, but imperfections abound. It started with a simple observation by me, whenever i passed by them on stations their frequency and pitch becomes higher. Alarmed i started looking around.

In standard ten ,their was this story of The Umbrella Man, where the protagonist' mother gives people the frosty nosed look(or something like that)

I saw something like that in their looks when they looked at me, then at my shoes and back at me.I was angry. In a federal state like India it is no body's business how i keep my shoes. But invariably i got conscious whenever i passed any one of them at the stations, only to see that look in their eyes and the brush banging sound.If you have seen Requiem for a dream it was like the sequence in the movie with the unforgettable soundtrack playing in the background which keeps repeating. My soul was on fire and begged for revenge.

So one fine day I unleashed my new pair of shoes and there was peace all around. No scary looks. The soul's fire extinguished. And peace all around.

But my feet are hurting. Call it new Shoes itch. Well as they say ..even Peace has a price.