The Dahisar railway platform was deserted on the Sunday afternoon. The next train was due only 20 minutes later, so I whiled away my time observing the shoe polisher.
He would be in his fifties. He sat on the platform overlooking the pedestrian over-bridge. Because he was sitting on the floor his world view was ground level - that of numerous feet walking around on the platform. He kept scanning the sea of feet that passed by him, and whenever he spotted a pair of feet that wore leather shoes, his eyes would brighten up, and he would shout "Shoe Polish" and look up at the face of the owner of the feet.
As I was observing him, his eyes suddenly took on a very puzzled expression. I followed his eyes to figure out what had caused this puzzlement.
He was looking at what is nowadays a rarity : the bare feet of a girl not wearing any footwear. He looked up to see her dress and face. She was probably in her early twenties smartly dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, and carrying a nice stylish hand-bag. She seemed to be middle class - so certainly able to afford buying footwear. So why was she bare-foot? And what was especially puzzling was that she seemed very comfortable walking around on the railway platform in her bare feet.
And then the shoe polisher noticed that the bare feet was walking towards him. He looked up, puzzled. She asked him with a sweet voice when was the next train to Churchgate due. He said 10 minutes.
He wanted to ask her a question, but then he decided to keep quiet. I could see that he was really struggling with the mystery as to :
- was she barefoot because her shoes broke and she had to discard it? But why then did she not buy another pair outside the station (or repaired her broken ones)?
- or probably, her shoes indeed broke and she does not have the money to buy a new pair? But then she should have some money in her nice stylish hand-bag that she carried?
- or maybe she is absent minded - and has walked out of her house forgetting that she has not worn shoes?
- or maybe she has a fetish for walking bare-foot - maybe she realises that it makes her look especially attractive not wearing any footwear?
10 minutes later as the train approached the platform, the girl reached out into her hand-bag, took out a plastic envelope in which was packed a pair of neat black leather shoes. She put on the shoes, and then boarded the train.
The shoe polisher now had an even more confused look. He kept staring at the compartment into which the girl had got into as the train left the station.
He then shrugged his shoulders and got back to scanning feet - some mysteries in life will remain mysteries.
