Alert trader saves patriotic feelings of Amdavadis

Thanks to the alertness of a patriotic trader, a story of shame could be prevented from being scripted in the city recently. Zakir Arab felt the China-made footwear with the Indian tri-colour printed on it could hurt the patriotic feelings of people, so he applied his mind and cancelled a big consignment.

Arab, a wholesale trader of footwear at Relief Road, received a sample of a pair of slippers with tri-colour on it from a salesman a couple of days back. He was shocked to find the footwear with national flag printed on it. He, however, did not tell the salesman that he did not like the design. He asked the salesman to give him the sample so that he could book the wholesale order.

"I feel ashamed that the three colours of our national flag were printed on the footwear," said Arab. He said that if he had given back the sample to the salesman, the latter would have gone to another trader who might have booked the consignment and the footwear gone to the market.

"After some time, I called up the salesman and told him not to dispatch the consignment to anybody as the footwear would hurt people's feelings," he said. He also said that he did not display the pair of slippers in his showroom as he did not want it to be sold.
Arab said that the product was manufactured in China and the way the three colours were printed on the footwear showed that it was an act of malevolence on the part of the Chinese manufacturers for India.