Poor guy. Someone took his shoes.
Standing outside a mosque once prayers are over, one can witness a breadth of expressions – the old chacha with the bent back and the tasbeeh (prayer beads), the young and restless who are in a hurry to get out as soon as Assalamalaikum-Wa-Rahmatullah is uttered at the end of prayers, the young corporate who is already busy with his Blackberry while putting on his shoes at the steps, the caring father with the kid by his arm making his first steps towards making the mosque a part of life – and amongst them, it’s quite likely you will find that one guy who is walking out barefoot.
Of all manners of perversions, it is probably a fetish for nicking shoes which stands out at almost all places of worship (barring Gurudwaras, in my experience). Yes, you may have your occasional mobile phone enthusiasts, or the hardcore ones who prefer hard cash – but by and large, such instances remain fairly limited.
The drab morose expression that gentleman had on his face as he came out bare feet, made me feel some bit for him. No, I wasn’t outraged at this happening during Ramadan. I’ve had one of the most expensive pair of shoes I had, disappearing during a past Ramadan – and I’m sure most of us would have similar stories to recount from our times spent at places of worship.
Empathy wasn’t exactly required in this case though. The gentleman got into his car, dusted his feet, pulled out his shoes, and drove away. Smart, eh! Well…shoe smart, more like it.
Nestled within the Masjid Nursery near Khan Market, the Pandara Road mosque looks like it has been around for a really long time. Only that not much is known about its exact history, though it is quite evident that it must have been quite a prominent mosque in Lutyens’ giving its location and size. Some stories abound that it was built by Babur, while another school of thought mentions Farrukhsiyar – nonetheless, it is quite certain the mosque has a heritage from the Mughal Period. One look at the walls of the inner prayer hall, and you can get a quaint feeling about the heritage of the mosque, although now the prayer hall has a carpet which gives way to almost half an inch under your weight. And oh, not to forget mentioning the split ACs – yeah baby, we got ’em here too now.
The courtyard had been made ready for Iftar with rows of dastarkhwan ready with plates of simple stuff which make up the quintessential Iftar at a mosque – dates, some fruit, some deep fried stuff, and disposable glasses of Rooh Afza – as the faithful waited for the signal to take their places around the dastarkhwan. The muezzin said the prayer for breaking the fast into the microphone, and that’s it. One more evening brings end to another day. Time does fly by faster in Ramadan.