What happened to the tennis shoe
I used to wear in school
In  simple, plain , white canvas
with soles so paper thin.

They’ve morphed into an industry
for different kinds of sport,
for biking, walking, trekking, cross training and hitch hiking.
For tennis, gymming, running
and simply just for wearing.
Non marking shoes for indoor courts
And sturdy ones for out door sports

They’re sneakers, trainers, high tops
and athletic foot wear too.

With uppers, inners, laces
in leather, fabrics, texures
that breathe and match your mood
In colours that are vibrant
no more just boring white
In styles and shapes and
make a statement
that finally you’ve arrived

Like the Shoe !

The tennis shoe as I knew it was a plain canvas lace up shoe with a rubber sole so thin that after two wears you could begin to feel the ground beneath your feet.

This shoe which was available at Bata shoe shops all over the country was the staple foot wear of all children athletic or otherwise. A few years later, this evolved into a shoe with a thin green line on the side and a slightly thicker sole . This meant that it was after six months or when the shoe tore ( whichever came earlier) before you felt the ground beneath your feet.

Keeping this shoe clean was quite a ritual. For those of us who were really particular, the shoe had to be scrubbed clean with soap and waer, semi dried before applying a thick white polish called Blanco. Applying the polish was an art in itself : a thicker layer meant that it would cake on drying which would flake on wearing. So it had to be applied just right.

For those who forgot to polish the shoes overnight, a quick fix was a wet white chalk hastily scrubbed on which would last for the five minute inspection in the Assembly line.

What a change it was then to find tennis shoes which looked nothing like its ancestor! Modern day shoes have solesas thick as 2 inches sometimes and in colours as lurid as can be. With high tops and air pumps and all weather soles and inners and uppers of different fabric and textures manufactured from high end to low end in all countries of he globe, gone are the days when one walked into a Bata and picked up a tennis shoe.

BESPOKE : According to the Thesaurus which I can refer to at the click of a button on my computer, this word means modified, tailored, adapted, made to order,personalised,  custom made.

What’s in a name ? the bard asked. Well, it would seem , there’s a lot !

When I was young, the buzz word was tailor made or made to order. Anything that was made specially to your requirements meant that  you were unique,your requirements were unique, and the article you got made was unique. This one of a kind article obviously made you feel good about yourself because there was no one else in the world who possessed it but you.

In the good old days when ready made garments and mass produced articles were a thing of the future,clothes were stitched by the local darzi. Similarly furniture was made by a local carpenter who actually came home and made chairs and tables as per your requirement. Biscuits were hand made by your mother or cook, as were cakes and other fancies.

Those special people who wanted to differentiate themselves from the hoi polloi then began getting things “Tailor made” or ” made to order”.  Soon these words too lost their novelty as every one and her auntie could get the latest catsuit from the current Vogue copied by the local darzi  tailor made or made to order. So the new catch word was “custom made” or “customised.” which meant that your Tailor Master was now morphed into a Designer whose workers were now designed into craftsmen. This customised service meant a complete fashion consult – taking your body type, the occasion, the fabric and also your wallet into account as a special garment was designed for you.

Thus customised suits or clothes became the order of the day.

In recent times, however,  even customised has become quotidian and what really counts in modern parlance is BESPOKE.

So now you have Bespoke homes, Bespoke clothes, Bespoke jewelry and Bespoke god knows what!

Once every body gets Bespoke everything, I wonder what the new watch word will be ? After all, there are no more words to define something that is “uniquely crafted for”. Perhaps we will have to look for a word in Mandarin!