Anita Ali from apartment 3D had been waiting six whole years for her official shoe-in ceremony. After all, she was the only girl in all of Clumsistan who still had to wear training toes in public! Oh, how she hated those ugly, itchy, sweaty rubber things that stuck onto your feet so that you couldn’t even wiggle your toes. But, today would be different.
Anita was finally old enough to prove that she was ready to wear grown-up shoes without losing her toes. She imagined all of the shoes that she could choose from: high heels that click, flip flops that squeak, sandals that sparkle or mojaris that jingle. Yup, she could wear anything, if she passed the big test, that is.
She knew there was no way around it. Every little boy or girl in the country had to take the dreaded twelve-hour Sole Search to find a pair of first shoes that held tightly onto their toes, no matter what. Anita was sure that by the end of the day, she would find just the right shoes to pass the test, but there was nothing right about what happened next.
The first challenge began after a night of pouring rain. Apa reluctantly dragged Anita downstairs to play early morning cricket with all of her friends, as older sisters often have to when their mothers say so. Anita was running toward the wicket when her right flip flop fell off and floated into the flooded street gutter, faster than she could chase after it.
All of the older kids laughed as Anita hopped with only her left shoe on. No, there was nothing right about these flip flops for Anita. She was determined to keep searching.
Then abu took Anita in a rikshaw with him to the market for the second challenge. Everyone knows that you have to hold on tight when riding in a rikshaw, but no one had told Anita’s red sandals that. While abu was busy chatting with the driver about corruption, as fathers often do to sound important, Anita’s right sandal flew out of the open door and knocked over a mango cart.
The street vendors shouted after the rikshaw as mangos rolled every which way. No, there was nothing right about these red sandals for Anita, even if they did make her feel taller. She would have to keep searching.
The worst of all was when dadi jaan told Anita to deliver groceries to Mrs. Panchaat on the sixth floor, just before she dozed off on the couch, as grandmothers often do after watching their late afternoon TV serials. Anita wished the third and final part of her Sole Search didn’t have to involve the nosy upstairs neighbour who always had some advice for her.
So, she rang the doorbell to 6C, dropped the bag of groceries, and ran down before Mrs. Panchaat could spot her. She would have passed with flying colours, if only her shiny right sneaker hadn’t fallen down all those flights of stairs first … onto a snoring stray cat in the alley.
Snoring cats don’t like to be woken by falling sneakers, you know. Anita hadn’t learned how to tie her shoe laces yet, so there was nothing right about these sneakers for her, especially when trying to escape from an angry cat. She had nowhere left to search.
Anita sat at the foot of her building and wondered. Did she truly have two left feet like Mrs. Panchaat often said she did? She examined her toes and secretly thought it was all their fault.
Without the right shoes, she would just have to keep walking in circles forever. Everyone knows you can’t get very far that way, even though Clumsistan was a small place. Anita stood up, prepared to return to the shoe-in ceremony in her bare feet.
Just then, long-legged Amin from 2B tripped on his way upstairs and landed safely beside Anita. She looked down at his feet and smiled. He was wearing not one, but two right shoes.
And, they had … Velcro!
Image Credit: Marcpous.info
