Shoe Story

There was a short story by Leo Tolstoy on a shoemaker in my English textbook.  His name was Martin, and he was the only shoemaker in the town.  So, he recognized everyone by looking at their shoes.  Only when he saw a pair of shoes not made by him, he would lift his head to see who it was! Martin’s life was full of sorrows.  He lost his wife and children and was living alone.  But he continued praying.  One night God appeared in his dream and said, ‘Martin, I will come to you tomorrow’.  Excited, he got up early the next day, finished his morning chores and sat down to make shoes.  But he kept looking though the window for the God’s arrival.  He saw a man shoveling snow in the biting cold.  He offered him hot tea.  Later, a poor lady came holding a baby in her arms.  Martin gave her food, warm clothes, and some money.  In the evening, he saw an old lady selling apples, who had caught a small boy trying to steal an apple from her basket.  Martin intervened and asked her to forgive the boy.  He took an apple and gave it to the boy, telling the lady that he would pay for it.  When the night fell, disappointed that the God didn’t come, he retired to bed.  After a while he heard a voice, ‘Martin, I came to you, did you not recognise me?’ Suddenly the faces of the man shoveling snow, the poor lady and the old lady selling apples flashed in his mind.  I loved this story so much that I read it many times and it remained in my memory.   

One of my friend’s father had a small unit manufacturing chappals at Kochi.  The unit operated from his house.  So, whenever I visited him, I saw two to three workers involved in making chappals using an awl and chisel.  Cut pieces of leather, plastic etc. were seen all over the floor, which they used to clean in the evening.  So, when I read Tolstoy’s story, I could imagine how a shoemaker worked.  

The government school where I studied didn’t have shoes as part of the uniform.  So, I never wore shoes during my school days.  Not that my father could not afford shoes, but he told me, ‘In your school, there are many kids coming from poor backgrounds who can’t afford shoes.  So, it doesn’t look good if you go wearing shoes’.  Today I understand the meaning of what he had said more than what I did those days.  But, my brother, who studied in Kendriya Vidyalaya, had to wear shoes and I used to polish his shoes every morning.  When I completed my school and joined college, my father bought me the first pair of shoes in my life – a black leather one. 

When I went to IIMA, I was fascinated by the design and quality of the shoes worn by some of my professors.  One brand that caught my attention was Hush Puppies.  But it was too costly for me.  So, Hush Puppies remained a dream.  Later when I moved to Tumkur, I saw advertisements for a highly attractive shoe in Business Today.  Florsheim - it was claimed to be the most popular shoe in the USA.  Florsheim was made popular by Michael Jackson who wore them for his concerts.  The advertisement also said that the shoes were sold in India by Shoppers Stop.  Around that time, Shoppers Stop had opened its first store in Bangalore.  So, during my next visit to Bangalore, I went to Shoppers Stop.  Yes, to my surprise, the same shoe which was shown in the advertisement was on display.  I was very happy.  But when I looked at the price, I was shocked.  It was almost sixty percent of my monthly salary.  When I returned my friend asked me, ‘you didn’t buy the shoes?  I said, ‘There was a small misunderstanding.  I was looking for a pair of shoes to wear on my feet.  But if I buy the one which I saw, I will have to keep it on my head!’.

Florsheim was imported from the USA in those days.  Today, Florsheim is manufactured in India, and is available at much lower prices.  More interestingly, my ability to buy has gone up significantly!

(You can read the story by Tolstoy here: https://mywonderstudio.com/en/level-2/where-love-is-god-is-also2/ )