Sole Guardians

But for Dongre,the 12 ‘o’ clock heat is just the beginning of a long afternoon at the shoe stall. He sits in an octagonal metal cage of sorts,surrounded by several racks of shoes. There’s a metal sheet overhead to keep out the worst of the glare and a small ceiling fan whirs slowly. After spending the entire morning cleaning the campus,Dongre mans the shoe stall between 12 and 4pm. “It gets really hot in the afternoon,and because of the metal sheet above,the air inside the stall is also hot,” he says. These are not the best work conditions and his job is monotonous at best,but he doesn’t seem to mind it so much. “I feel peace of mind and that I am doing people some service too,by keeping their belongings safe,” he says.

Dongre and other shoe keepers like him have markedly improved the experience of temple visitors over the years. Time was when people would pick their oldest and most dispensable pair of shoes before a visit to the temple because they could never be sure whether they would be wearing it on the way back. “That’s why we are here. If you keep your shoes with us,you can go in and pray without second thoughts,” says Chetan Bajentri,a shoe-keeper at the ISKCON temple in Camp. Bajentri’s shift runs from 3 pm to 10 at night,when he finally begins packing up. The highlights of his day are meal times when he goes inside the temple and is served bhog or prasad. “I’m helping people and serving the temple. At the same time,I earn enough to help support my family,” he says.

The true veteran shoe guardians are Manoj Boga and Amar Bogam. Both of them work at the Dagdusheth Halwai temple,one of the city’s busiest religious centres. Boga and Bogam’s hands move non-stop,taking shoes from visitors or giving it back to them. They don’t miss a beat and don’t even check the numbers on the racks. After seven years of working at the shoe stall,every rack and its location is etched in their memory. Their challenge is also more obvious. “Some people are nice and kind and others are rude and argue with us,” says Boga. “Some of them don’t want to touch their shoes,so they leave them outside our stall. But we can’t watch shoes unless they are given to us. Then when the shoes get stolen,the same people come and argue with us,” adds Bogam.

But the job’s not all bad,as Bogam points out. “So many people queue up for a darshan,but because of our service to the temple,we get VIP access to god,and that is great,” he says.

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