It was 7:53 AM. In just about 7 minutes the school assembly was going to start and Arjun, a class 9 student, had just those few minutes to turn his shabby-looking canvas shoes into sparkling ‘white’ ones. Joe wasn’t alone, though. Almost his entire class was frantically hustling around looking for ways to attain the same. 7 minutes turned to 5 and there it was, the solution, waiting on the ledge of the huge green chalkboard: the white chalk. He picked it up and rolled it over the darkened part of his white shoes to cover the dirt marks. And, so did everyone else, turn by turn, because there were always a limited number of those available.

But, there were days, or rather nights before school which I would completely dedicate to cleaning ‘em canvas shoes because I loved them and I had no wish to stand in the defaulters line the next day. I would first dip them in water. Use a thick brush to rub the dirt out of them. Don't forget the laces, we gotta rub them too. Dry them for a bit and then apply the heavenly milky white polish that came with this fancy roll on. Rolling the white polish on my shoes was my favourite bit of the cleaning process. And, then you leave them to dry overnight right under the fan. To make sure that they do dry by school-time next day, I’d keep them on a chair for extra air from the fan.

And when they would get torn beyond repurposing, our parents would take us to buy a new pair.

Shopping for these was a magical time indeed. This one time I remember that my old P.T shoes torn from the toe of my left foot and so my parents got me a size 7 instead of a size 6. I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t contain the happiness within for I was growing into a bigger adult who wears a size 7.