"Take off your shoes here," is a terse message displayed near the entrance to many places of worship; sometimes the word ‘please’ is added out of politeness. In temples, mosques and gurdwaras, you have to squat on the floor in veneration, displaying devotion. The place needs to be kept clean and must not be sullied with the dirt and dust that may come with footwear.
In the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere, particularly in hot and humid places, it is customary to take off footwear before going indoors. It is supposed to be a sign of respect for the host and a part of efforts to keep the place clean. If you barge in disregarding the direction on the door, unwittingly or otherwise, you are sure to meet stares of disapproval or angry glares with a buzz you cannot miss. It would be best to rectify the situation by discreetly retreating and relieving yourself of the offending footwear at the entrance.
In gurdwaras, the process is meticulously organised and strictly ensured. The footwear is kept in pigeonholes at a place earmarked for the purpose. The place is sometimes manned by well-to-do persons who take pride in doing the seva of safe-keeping.
The effort involved in untying the shoe laces and doing the converse after the visit, is considered cumbersome by some; they are not particularly keen to visit places where they have to take off their shoes, particularly those with laces. Many would prefer to have a darshan of the deity from the outside as it does not involve the exercise of taking off and wearing the footwear. Such people go to strategically located spots of worship where the deity is visible from the road itself, to earn their quota of punya.
There is a class of devotees that goes to the temple barefooted in order to avoid the risk of their footwear being stolen. It is also believed that this brings extra punya.
Once I visited a temple with my friend to pay obeisance to the gods. My friend was dutifully praying but looking back repeatedly, literally after each line of prayer. Soon the reason was evident: his object of attention was his newly purchased, gleaming pair of shoes that he had left outside, unguarded but within view. The gods must not have been very pleased by his diversion from devotion.
My friend can hardly be faulted as many places of worship are known for the have-nots escaping with the footwear of visitors, particularly new ones. Many savvy dudes discreetly wear their worn-out pairs to such places where arrangements for safe-keeping of footwear are not up to the mark.
One of my friends had conspicuously displayed a notice at the entrance of his house, requesting visitors to take off their footwear before entering. Whenever a visitor approached, my friend would quickly get out with his chappals on and would usher the visitor to the place where footwear was to be taken off. He would carefully take off his chappals at the appointed place, all the time looking at the guest, in order to impel him to follow suit. This tactic always worked.
In North Indian weddings, it is risky for the bridegroom to take off his shoes because as soon as he does so, young women from the bride’s side ‘steal’ them. This custom is known as joota churai , or shoe-stealing. The girls then demand a ‘ransom’ to give back the shoes, without which the groom finds himself quite helpless. He has to shell out a hefty sum to retrieve his belonging.
There was a song and dance sequence based on this custom in a popular Bollywood film, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. Incidentally, the painter Maqbool Fida Husain who saw the film many times and liked the film’s heroine, never again wore footwear!
When religious functions are organised, shoes and chappals are necessarily taken off outside the entrance, and the spread of accumulation there can tell you whether you are late or early and how large the gathering inside would be. The accumulation of footwear has the tendency to enlarge towards the closing stages of the function when the aarti is being performed and prasad is about to be distributed.
In other parts of the world, particularly African and eastern countries, the custom of leaving the shoes outside is in vogue for various reasons. Sometimes it is a religious obligation to keep the place of worship clean. In places with high rainfall levels, the mud-covered footwear have to be taken off at the doorstep. In some regions with a warm climate, people while at home take their afternoon siesta and they need "tranquility and silence in their wooden houses", which can be ensured if the shoes are left outside.
When I was working in Bahrain, I saw that the houses there were well-carpeted and centrally air-conditioned. It was customary there to leave the shoes at the door so as not to soil the rugs and keep the atmosphere dust-free. The same is the position in other West Asian countries.
Even in freezing weather, the Americans would shed their footwear at the entrance to a house, and their overcoat or jackets would be taken by the host to be kept in the closet, so that the guests could unburden and feel comfortable in centrally heated conditions.
However, the sad part is that millions of people in the world do not have any shoes to take off!
