June 22, 2007

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.

10 comments:

Just Like That said...

and you feel so much cleaner, somehow!
Even for babies, while we do wipe up the ones and twos, with a wet tissue, if there was the option, nothing like washing the entire area with warm water, and then patting dry...
But guess it all has to do with how you were brought up. I have NRI cousins who swear by toilet paper!

Asha said...

thanks for visiting Artnavy!
i know, my blog has this typical baby girl look, and i like it... but now i fear that i will force myself to change the whole template if it's a boy :)

Anonymous said...

oh yeah. our firang friends always have this shocked look when we explain why we have a mug in the bathroom! :))

By Deepa and Supriya said...

Yay!! I chose to come back to day and I see I get a mention :) Congrats on the 200th post. what a neat picture of ANush too...she is making quite a fashion statement with the over sized glasses :)

Anonymous said...
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Artnavy said...

orchid- i knew u would come over....;-)

asha- it is all about breaking stereotypes- so what if it is a boy....

just like that and namvor- thanks for siding with me on this

Sunita said...

Congratulations on your 200 post in 10 months!! WOW!! I took 4 years to reach just half of that.
Anush has great style :)

Artnavy said...

sunita- not yet reached there
thanks anyway
will be there in a couple of days and posts

di.di said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
di.di said...

Opps, congratulations on your 200th post... you go girl!!