Removal of Shoes

We have always removed our shoes after entering our house both here in India and back in America. In India, it is almost sacriligious to enter someone's home with your shoes on and more so if you don't know them or you're providing a service to them. The maid, the driver, the cook, the carpenter, etc.. will not only remove their shoes before entering but they will remove it at the first step, and not even on the porch. When friends/relatives come over, they will remove their shoes on the porch or after entering the house depending on their comfort level. Rushil and Sindhu's friends who are Indian raised will typically remove their shoes on the front porch. When the pizza delivery boy comes to our house, it's nightime and you know how squeamish I am about mosquitos and other bugs entering the house so I insist that he enters the home while I pay him. He protests and finally Sindhu forces him to come in saying we don't want mosquitos to enter the house.

When the India movers brought in our US shipment, all of them removed their shoes when they entered our house. We insisted that they keep on their shoes as I was worried they would drop a box or refrigerator on their foot. They however said it was safer for them not to have their shoes on. This is a huge difference from the US, where the maids, the movers, handymen all insist on wearing their shoes for safety reasons. The India movers were scrawny looking, not like the big bulky movers back in America. Our Indian movers did not even have any dollies or harnesses, can you believe they carried some of the heavy pieces like a refrigerator on one person's back. Horrifying to watch. Yet they did a great job and there was very little damage.

Sindhu and Rushil take a bus to school. Even the teachers take the same school bus which provides more security for the children in addition to the school bus driver and his two helpers. There is one school staff member that gets on at our bus stop. He is an Ayappa devotee and as I mentionned earlier, there is an Ayappa festival going on. So for 40 days, he will be fasting, wearing only black, a large bindi/bottu on his forehead, no shoes, no meat and the list goes on. Every day, he walks barefoot onto the bus and everyday, I note in my head that he is not wearing shoes. I know it's silly given the number of people in India that have no shoes/chappals and walk around barefoot but somehow it's seems out of place on the school bus.