THE SHOES

that build the city

I am not Hermes’ winged sandal, nor Cinderella’s glass slipper. I am not a rider's Jodhpur boot or a traveller’s stylish Brogue. I am not this season’s trending model of a sneaker, forming a part of a young boy’s vast footwear collection. I am not a formal Oxford worn by executives working in glass towers. I am not a holy man’s sandalwood paduka, nor a ballet dancer’s satin pointe.

I am the humble footwear of a construction worker. My identity has been worn out by years of use. I belong to the feet that work tirelessly to build this city - through the sultry summers and wet monsoons, through weekends and festivals alike. I have stood for long hours on site, walked miles and climbed endless stairs carrying heavy loads. I have trudged back home wearily, exhausted, dusty and stained after a gruelling day at a construction site.

I help bring to life people’s dream homes by day, and dream of my own home, which I have left behind in the hinterlands, by night. I am old and broken and falling apart despite the caring hands of the cobbler who has put me together umpteen number of times. I yearn for rest, but the city desires more as it grows endlessly, spreading out like a fungus to cover every bit of land available and to pierce as much of the sky as it can.

This city never sleeps.

It grows treacherously day and night, swallowing forests and the mangrove-lined coast, saltpans and river edges. It is home to tens of millions of people. As I help build high-rise towers and luxury apartments for the fortunate, I wonder about thousands who continue to be homeless and millions like me who live in slums and shanties, crumbling tenements and suffocating rehabilitation cubbyholes that masquerade as social housing.

Where will this endless growth lead us, I wonder? Whose city am I helping build? When will the shoes that help build the city find a humane habitat in it?

I would ponder over this a lot more, but I can’t. Right now, I need to walk to my next work shift. The growth of a megapolis awaits.

This piece commemorates World Labour Month and is dedicated to all forms of labour that shape our lives. It has been inspired by the work of photographer Aslam Saiyad whose sensitive eye frames the everyday life and people of the city of Mumbai (and beyond). Do follow his work on his Instagram handle bombay_ka_shana.

Every post I write is a labour of love. Please support it by buying me a book.