IN an inconspicuous corner of Adliya's Phoenicia Centre sits a cobbler who once made shoes fit for a king ... or rather the late Amir of Bahrain, Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa.
The walls of Haji Anwar Hussain's shop, National Shoe Makers, are stark and unadorned except for his shop license and a large photograph of himself shaking late Shaikh Isa's hand.
The shop is minimal and unpretentious unlike the usual glitzy shoe stores that lure the customer from afar with their inviting window displays.
Now 65, Haji Anwar, a Pakistani, recounts how in his 40 years on the island he has handmade over 260 shoes and carried out countless repairs for late Shaikh Isa and other important personalities in Bahrain including British Army officers who were stationed on the island before it became an independent state.
Today, he wants nothing more than to retire in Bahrain and to allow his sons to continue in their father's footsteps in the country they love and know as home.
However, despite repeated attempts to secure nationality he finds himself lost in a bureaucratic maze of misery.
