Shoe shine and Loos

My first day at school in Mumbai and I was reprimanded for wearing Bata black leather school shoes. The monsoon meant rain shoes for school-which was footwear made with PVC/plastic in the mandatory black. And not ugly but practical gum boots. Bata's Sabrina or Sandok brand offered a pretty decent variety. I cannot begin to state the obvious logic to this rule.

There seems to be no concept of rain foot wear in Chennai for school going children. This morning, I saw so many kids struggling to keep their white canvas shoes ( keds) in ship shape in all the muck that the rains have left behind. Some parents were carrying their kids to the autos/ buses to keep their shoes untainted. I hope some authority reads this and wakes up to it.

In The Hindu today , there was this article. While I agree with the conclusion that Indian sanitation is not very good, the reasoning is completely wrong. It seems so out of sync with the cultural context. It is like saying the sale of woolens is low in Chennai!! We do not waste trees and paper, we use water instead. At least most of it goes back to the world's resource.

Orchid has inspired me to coincide my 200th post with my 10th month blog anniversary.