Like headgear and costume on the body the pair of shoes one is putting on not only identifies his domicile but also suggests his financial clout and social stature. And these three 'speak' even before the tongue comes into action. In fact, the target-audience too makes its estimation even before what it hears. Among these silent speakers, the shoes speak rather loudly, forcing the target-audience to cast one more glance. These can be a high-heel court-shoe or just flat slippers. And in case of a male, the pair of shoes on his feet may be moccasins or dress boots. And if you happen to be a Pakistani it may be a pair of embroidered 'khussa' or 'Kohati chappal'. But what we are going to talk about is a pair of snakeskin chappals specially made for Prime Minister Imran Khan as Eid gift. But this could not be delivered - at least by the time these lines were written. In this case the villain of the piece is the KP government - Khan's 'own' government. The shoemaker in Peshawar, whose setup is named after Imran Khan the Kaptaan, made two pairs - one for the man who sent the snakeskin from abroad and the other he wanted to be delivered to the prime minister. The poor shoemaker, probably, did not know that use of snakeskin is prohibited under Pakistan's Wildlife Act 2015. He was fined Rs 50,000, but allowed to keep the pair which he said would be delivered to the prime minister.
There was a time when an all-leather shoe, even when its sole was stone hard, was a preference. But now shoes having soft, flexible soles are more in demand. There is however no compromise on demand that upper parts of shoes should be of pure leather. In most of the cases there are of cow skin, tanned locally or imported. But there is no dearth of connoisseurs who prefer skins of reptiles like lizards, cobras and pythons for upper parts of shoes. In Far East one may also find a shoe with its upper made of crocodile skin. And, the shoe is a dual-purpose instrument. It saves the feet not only from extremities of weather, hardness of the ground under feet but in some cases provides greater traction needed to accelerate the pace. But it is also a weapon, often raised by women to scare away the eve-teasers and by the police to extract truth from the accused in detention. Coming back to the snakeskin chappal for Imran Khan, one should not forget that the snake, especially the King Cobra, is national reptile of India, and prominent symbol of Hindu mythology and folklore in India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. But, rest assured, to this saga of snakeskin pair of shoes there is no innuendo, whatsoever, to the regional politics; shoemaker Shinwari got a piece of snakeskin and made a pair of shoes for his favourite customer - and in the process also ensured security of a threatened species.