Shoes

Savita had learnt on the job. She didn’t really have a choice, it was either learn and survive or starve and die. So just after a month on the job she was already a pro at rag-picking. Her eyes had learnt to spot items of value in the midst of all the dirt and filth on the land-fill. At the end of the day her bag almost always contained one or two things that would fetch a decent sum at the chor bazaar.

Today she had started early to beat the heat of a high summer day. As she worked her way from the top of the landfill, a momentary sparkle at the one instant when the rays of the morning sun let out the rainbows on its surface, instinct told her that she had found something.

Carved to fit the most delicate of feet, with intricate, golden embroidery, the shoe after she had carefully scraped off the remains of someone’s half eaten chicken wing and gravy was truly a thing of beauty. Savita carefully wiped it with her saree to remove the stains without harming the embroidery. She stared at it for a few seconds before realizing that if Kallu, her boss, spotted her, she would have to compulsorily hand it over so she immediately pushed it into her bag, way down near the bottom.

“Found something?” Kallu yelled.

“Nothing but the usual here.” She said without looking up.

“Then stop day-dreaming and get to work.” He spat out, “Useless b***h.” He muttered.

Turning away from him Savita smiled at the thought of her friends’ envy when she showed them the shoe. But, she figured suddenly, one shoe was as good as no shoes. If she wanted to show-off she had to find the second shoe. It was the largest land-fill of the city finding one shoe wasn’t going to be easy at all but she set at it with gusto.

From a softly warm, the sun had turned intensely hot. The shoe kept eluding her. Fetid vapours rose around her. She buried her nose in her pallu and continued prodding the garbage. Her diligence had led to a few good discoveries and numerous scruffy and tattered shoes but not the one she searched. She was beginning to think that she might just end up with a sole shoe.

Suddenly she saw a shoe’s heel protruding from the ground half-hidden under a broken plastic bucket. Savita pushed the bucket away and there it was, dirty but whole.

“Thank you, Balaji.” She muttered.

She tried to it pick up but it held fast. Placing her bag to the side she squatted and pulled at it with both her hands. It didn’t loosen. She started digging the space around it and suddenly stopped. The shoe wasn’t coming off because it was stuck on a bloodied and bloated leg.

Savita jumped up and took a step backwards. As she looked closely she saw it wasn’t just a leg, it was a whole body. Savita turned her face away horrified. Gingerly she forced herself to look again. The face was disfigured and unrecognizable, the limbs twisted grotesquely, only the curve at the chest indicated that it was the woman, that and the shoe.

The shoe, with its golden threads and colourful beads lured Savita with its beauty, she felt an unexplicable, uncontrollable desire to posses it. Savita wasn’t a scavenger, even among rag-pickers there was hierarchy and she had never even considered tramping over a corpse before but she couldn’t control herself this time.

After only a few seconds of indecision, she tied her pallu around her face, glanced around to make sure no one was watching and furiously, frantically, pulled the shoe with all her might, it loosened and finally came off. Thrusting it into her bag, Savita walked away with an ecstatic spring in her step.

Author's Note

Chor bazaar - Market for second hand/ stolen products
Saree - Flowy Indian garment for women
Pallu - One end of a saree which remains flowing from the shoulder
Balaji - One of the numerous Indian gods especially worshipped in South India