The Hindu Business Line : No shoes, please

Very soon we will be arriving at a situation where, to attend a Press conference or perhaps even a lecture or something of the sort, one will be asked to take off one’s shoes and leave it at the entrance. This is the futuristic message of the reported incident of a shoe being hurled at the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Wen Jiabao, at a place none other than Cambridge University.

Making a strong ‘impact’

Indeed, this could have been a solitary event, sparked off by the presence of a crank in the audience, in which case the happening could have been ignored. However, the potential significance of the event was such that the Chinese Prime Minister had to go out of his way to make the point that though the behaviour of the missile-thrower was ‘despicable’, it “cannot stand in the way of friendship between China and the UK”.

The problem is that with two such events happening in quick succession — the last one being staged in Iraq last December when the “target” was none other than the US President himself — it can perhaps be suggested that such things are getting to become too much of a habit with people who think nothing of behaving unconventionally when it comes to expressing a dissenting point of view.

So, from the “security” aspect, the best thing would be to ask invitees to take off their footwear, perhaps put them into a bag (a stack of which would be neatly piled up in a corner), and hand them in at the counter in exchange for a tag.

This would, of course, mean extra work for the staff at the counters, who are nowadays kept busy stashing away all sorts of items of everyday use, but then surely the extra inconvenience cannot be helped in the interests of protecting the person of the guest-speakers, etc, from over-enthusiastic members of the audience, some of whom have no qualms in expressing themselves in what ever way they think fit to make a strong “impact”.

Shoeless listening

Indeed, the confiscation of one’s shoes at events should be seen as a logical progression of the security-drill at airports (among other places) involving the passing of footwear through electronic scanning machines, an exercise which, when it was first introduced after 9/11, raised the hackles of travellers to whom shoes were as important a part of their attire as their shirt.

Who knows, at some date in the future (which may be much closer than we can ever imagine) listening to lectures without your shoes on — at venues which are appropriately security-conscious — could become as routine an exercise as switching off one’s mobile today, which could then spawn a new line of business focusing on alternative, officially-approved footwear to wear for such occasions. This apart, there are olfactory aspects which too have to be considered, which in turn could lead to the development of another new line of business adding, no matter how marginally, to GDP.

The central point is that to a whole lot of people, the looming vision of shoeless listening to the outpourings of personages could be a trifle distasteful and uncomfortable, especially if the weather is cruel or if the heating is malfunctioning.

But, come to think of it, there are similarities between the exercise and a visit to a place of worship in the Orient, where shoes are taken off voluntarily before one sets foot in the house of the deity. The problem, of course, is the status of the gods involved and the difference in the emotions aroused.

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY