Ananya was a very creative girl who lived in Chester Town. There was a big exhibition to be organized in the town, on the 5th of August. People were supposed to make different things using their creativity that were going to be put on sale for the exhibition.
The people of the town were skilled craftsmen. Everyone was busy making handicrafts, toys, candles, etc. but Ananya wanted to make something different, she had an interest in making shoes as her father was a great shoemaker. Her father had taught her the process of making different types of shoes. Thus, she began making loads of shoes to sell at the exhibition.
The first pair she made was an ordinary pair of sneakers, the second was a shining pair of sandals. She kept on making colourful pairs of shoes. She was then almost out of all the colourful leather and had some black leather left from which only one pair of shoes could be made. She hated black leather and thought nothing good could be made using it. Then her father walked into her room and saw the pairs of shoes she had made. He told her that the pairs of shoes she made were ordinary and not very creative, and he explained to Ananya that it’s the shoemaker’s creativity that makes the shoes beautiful.
Inspired by him she sat up all night making a pair of black shoes. It was a unique pair. No one had seen such shoes before. It was very creative, but had a weird shape and Ananya thought that it wasn’t apt to be sold. The next day at the exhibition all her shoes were displayed and she had kept the black shoes off display. Slowly customers kept coming and her shoes were all sold except for the black ones. Then a customer came to her shop and asked her if she had any shoes left, because he really liked her designs and wanted a pair. Ananya had the black pair of shoes left and thought that it wasn’t good enough to be sold.
She took out the black shoes, showed it to the customer and said that it was one of the shoes she was trying to make with her own creativity but it didn’t turn out that well. The customer kept on staring at the unique pair of shoes and then after a moment of silence said that it was the best pair of shoes he had ever seen. Ananya looked at him in surprise as he wished to buy it. The customer then asked Ananya it’s price, and as she said that it was worth 200 rupees, the man said that he was a shoemaker too and for the pair of shoes she had made was a very special pair, so the man bought the pair of black shoes for 5000 rupees. Ananya’s black shoes, which she thought were the worst, turned out to be the best pair of shoes she had made for the exhibition!
Image courtesy: Julie de Graag
thespace.ink has collaborated with ‘Word Munchers’, a creative writing platform that trains and encourages kids and youngsters to hone their creative writing skills. thespace.ink will be publishing two short essays by students of ‘Word Munchers’ every Saturday.
