The authoress, Anees Jung has been encountering the army of barefoot rag-picker children for many months. She asks one why he is not wearing chappals. Another adds if he gets, he will throw them off. A third boy says that he wants shoes, he has never owned a pair all his life. The authoress Anees Jung recollects a story of a man from Udipi as he told her. As a young school boy, every morning on his way to school he would briefly stop at the temple and pray the goddess for a pair of shoes. When he had finally got a pair of shoes, he prayed, “let me never lose them.” The goddess had granted his prayer.

When Saheb wears pair of discarded tennis shoes due to a hole in one of them, it does not bother him. For one who has walked barefoot even shoes with a hole is a dream comes true. The reality of life on this earth is that there are millions of innocent children who lose the spring (youth) of their lives under the threat of grinding poverty which exploit them under the demand of nature for satisfying their hunger for their survival. It is not due to lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot, is one explanation. This is only an excuse for the continuing state of poverty which is the cause of the children staying barefoot in cities or on village roads.

Tips: -

V. Imp.