Glorified Chappal!

The salesman in the footwear shop was astonished with my demand. 'A chappal with a strong strap, strong enough not to be removed by anyone'.  It was not only that my dogs have the habit of chewing into my footwear that I wanted a strong strap.

It was only after  I watched a TV debate that I started thinking of the glory of chappals. A senior media person was seen commenting on the ISRO spy scandal in a leading TV channel,  'policemen who didn't have the qualifications to remove the strap of Nambi Narayan's chappal framed a false case against him.' Very recently, a friend of mine couldn't resist the temptation to latch on to the strong foot wear strap either. He said many junior artistes who didn't have the qualification to remove the chappal strap of super star Mohanlal were turning up against him in AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes).

The same chappal that gets glorified when some people wear it also gets a negative connotation on other occasions. If you want to make someone a hero garland him with flowers but if you want to belittle someone or show your protest, garland him with chappals!. There is nothing more insulting than getting a slap with a slipper from an offended woman.

But chappals can also turn out to be second class citizens. In many clubs, chappals are not allowed at all. In other places they are stolen or mistakenly taken away by somebody else as in Churches, temples or outside halls or auditoriums. In school where we were supposed to wear black shoes on most days except canvas on Physical Training day, I remember teachers scolding those who wore chappals. It was meant for the bathroom.

Just as the feeling of nakedness without a dress, we feel the same without a footwear. But renowned painter M F Hussain had the courage to go bare foot to Willingdon Island in Mumbai only to be turned off. My uncle never wore a chappal until his retirement when doctors said he was suffering a skin problem in his heels.

I still can’t understand the fate of a chappal. Does it get glorified by the importance of the person who wears it or does the quality of the chappal define the person? Definitely one should assume the former is true if we recall the epic Ramayana. For Bharata refused to become King much against the wishes of his mother Kaikeyi when Rama went into exile for 14 years. He ruled as a regent of Rama keeping his Sandals on the throne.