Those canvas shoes!

I saw someone jogging in a pair of canvas shoes. Sometimes, you need just a suggestion, to take a trip down memory lane. A kaleidoscope of images gatecrashed into the mind- of canvas shoes and school days, of fun and freedom and above all, that carefree, “bindass” attitude to life in general! 

Maintaining a pair of canvas shoes was not easy. It had to be a coated with a special polish and left to dry overnight. It required foresight and extreme diligence. As a school boy, you had none! Just before the PT class, students scrambled to rub the shoes with a stub of chalk. Often, they got away with this last-ditch cosmetic effort. But then, PT teachers were always one step ahead. The students were lined up and asked to jump up and down! If it was chalk-polish, it exuded an enormous puff of powder and the shoe was back to its dirty self! Boys came up with glib excuses all the time. They had polished the shoes at home, but the public transport bus was overcrowded and the shoes got into this shabby state!

 

During Mumbai’s famed monsoons, canvas shoes were a liability. The shoes turned to sponge- they were soaked with water and now squeaked with each step. The school corridor was a mess, pocked with footmarks. The floor was wet, the shoe had no grip and walking was a challenge, like skating on ice! Boys continued to be unmindful, and ran down the corridors like an unleashed cyclone during lunch-time. Accidents were many- as they skidded and collided with an unwary student finishing up his mid-day meal. The tiffin box with its contents took a few sommersaults before it settled face-down! The face-off during those occasions was ugly! 

Sports Day was an annual event and the Shoe Race was hugely popular. All the 50 students in class had to remove their canvas shoes and pile them up in one big heap. At the blow of the whistle, you had to run to the heap, search and wear your shoes, tie the lace and run back! At the end of the event, there were always disgruntled students. They were left with shoes, which weren’t theirs and to make it worse, of different sizes! It was impossible to trace your pair after the event, with each student insisting he was wearing his own! The rest of the year, you somehow managed, with an oversized shoe on one foot and the other foot squeezed into a shoe half your size! 

On one occasion, canvas shoes came handy as a tool to exact revenge. The class monitor was the teacher’s pet and that distanced him from the rest of the class. Students took pot shots at opportune moments. One day, the teacher called for the monitor. He tried to rush towards the teacher, but strangely could not. His legs were rooted to the spot and he shuffled like a mermaid! Some crafty student had stealthily tunneled his way under the desks, reached for the monitor’s shoes and tied the lace of one shoe to the other! The class was in splits. The teacher was angry and summoned the usual suspects. As was often the case, the offender left no trace and in the absence of evidence, the class was allowed to disperse after a strict warning! 

A virtual class is robbed of all this entertainment. We hope this period of virtual schooling ends and students can go back to school and create their own memories- memories that will last a lifetime!