Paragon, the once luxury wear.

The earliest memory of me going to a footwear shop was to buy a pair Paragon chappals in Bidi, my mama's native. That was almost twenty years ago. Unlike today, it was not a casual, bathroom wear. The blue and white, rubber made footwear was a dreamy luxury. And there were rarely any other variants of the brand. It was so widely used that, Paragon was a synonymous for chappals.

Then, buying anything that's not a basic need of life was not easy. No one gave away money like that. There wasn't anything like pocket money and all. Only 90’s kids will understand the pain of desperate expectations money from the relatives who came home. That was the time when 25 paise and 50 paise had the potential to light up a kid's life. So, buying brand new chappals costing 60 rupees was a distant dream. But when you're in a place like Bidi to enjoy your summer holidays, anything is possible.

Bidi is a place that's almost at the periphery of Western ghats. Its landscape has the touch of hilly tracts making it a hub of variety of fruit trees. Every summer was a perfect time to devour all splendors the place provided. All other fruits like mango, guava, sapota, jamun, jackfruit etc satisfied the belly but the cashew nuts assured some real good money. A kilo of cashew nuts would fetch forty to fifty rupees. The nuts  were even accepted in  the shops directly to buy things. So literally cashew nuts were our currency during the summers.

Collecting two to three kilos of cashew was sure a challenge. We had to earn them. Earn? What's that? We simply stole them. Me along with my two cousins riding our Tyre wheels on our random expeditions used to sneak into the farms. Had been chased by the farm owner many of the times. Very rarely there were serious confrontations by them but dealing with family elders over such issues was way too difficult. Though we had our own trees in the farm, we could only be able to take the nuts if we worked in the farm that mostly involved helping my grandpa with random work. That surely was not an attractive option, though couple of times that option was accessed too.

That summer at the end of the season, besides all other expenses like toffees, papadi, marbles to play, the chakki, roasted chickpeas and rasagulla, I'd saved nearly two kilos of nuts. The two kilos fetched nearly hundred rupees. That was a fortune. The first on my list was buying Paragon chappals. My mama took me to the footwear shop to buy the chappals. Sixty rupees a pair, it was written on them and I was the proud owner of them. After coming home, my mama carved an 'A' on the sole, making my ownership legitimate. The chappals surely were point of my pomp at that time.

After some four five years another variant of the chappals was released. This one had a bit broad, well designed straps on it. It was way too attractive and people with bit of fashion sense started to wear it. When I was sixth class, a senior wore one of those. I thought they were way too costly and never demanded to have them bought for me. After school when I was fed up with the stink of sandals, I wanted a new alternative to my smelly feet. Like that again I had to be content with the Paragon. Bought the broad strap variant of chappals while pursuing graduation. Hence realizing the little childhood dream.