The Old Faithful

An old shoe is like a good friend. It has been with you through rain and shine. It knows your ups and downs. It is well broken into and takes you in your stride. And you know where it pinches. You might have a whole lot of shiny, brand new shoes – sexy, strappy sandals, high-heels, open-toes etc but whenever you feel blue or you need comfort and solace you go back to the good old shoe. That is how a good friend is. I am definitely not one of those women who have a closet full of shoes, so many of them that you need an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the various colors/models/brands etc. Some of my shoes are just plain black and nothing special to look at. But they are loyal [never gave away in the middle of the road], comfortable [they don’t cause blisters] and reliable [I know how to walk in them]. Among all these one of them is my everlasting favorite. It would make a fashionista wonder what about it made me pick up this particular pair from a sea of shoes. But I think it sometimes just happens. You look at it and you know it is your shoe for life. There might not be electric sparks shooting around, no flutter in the heart when you see them, no bells ringing and no guitars playing in the background, it just seems like the most natural choice. You walk in, you pick it up and you take it home, without thinking twice.

Sometimes, you might be wrong; the one that looks like the most comfortable might be the one that pinches in places you don’t expect. These, comrade, are the kind of shoes that you want to be wary of. They do not carry an unseen warning tag like the thin and flimsy ones nor do they stand out like the strap and belt deals. They don’t shout for attention in any ways. When you walk around in them you get a funny feeling but you just ignore it, hoping that if you turn a blind eye to it, it will just vanish. So slowly and unwittingly you let your guard down with them. And then one fine day, quite out of the blue, they cause this blister on the big toe to remember for life. Tip of the day: Nip the funny feeling in the bud. It is not worth carrying the memory of the blister for the rest of your life.

And then there are the Manolo ‘Blah’niks and the Jimmy Choos of the “Sex and the City” fame. From the open-toe mules to the satin evening sling backs, they always scream trouble. Just run away in the opposite direction is what I suggest. Now don’t get me wrong, these shoes are considered the most extraordinary and are synonymous with high glamour, sex appeal yada yada yada.. and this is the exact reason why I want you to stay away from them. Any shoe with so much effort gone into making it very pretty to the nail will end up causing you too much grief. For instance, all your friends start noticing your Choos that they even forget to say Hi to you. Guys either think you are high-maintenance and stay away from you or are making mental plans to pilfer them from you to pawn it in time for their next poker game. When you slip and fall you are more concerned about the tiny little scratch on your darling shoe than your scraped bloody knee. In short it steals away all the attention. Just imagine that you spent a couple thousand bucks on these beauties, you wear them to the next birthday bash and while walking back to your car in the parking lot, it rains!! Do you know what that will do to your pulse and blood pressure? It is too much strain on the nerves, I tell ya. Just stay away from any shoe that has a four-digit price tag, even if the price is for the pair.

I have never been a fan of following every fad and fashion. To me, it is basically admitting to the whole world that you are so stupid that you need someone else to decide your whims and fancies. Hence I stick to shoes that never go out of fashion. I don’t care if half of the world wears the exact look-alike. As long as I feel comfortable I don’t give a damn if people call them whimsical. I don’t run to the mall to pick up the pair of red pumps because Cosmo tells me that red is the color of the season. But hey, that doesn’t mean I don’t have a pair of red pumps. I prefer to remain an enigma.

How can one not mention the seasonal shoes? The winter boots and the summer flip-flops. You cannot do without them in the season of reference, and once it passes you suddenly cant help but shelve them away, making a firm promise to yourself that you will check in there before buying a new pair the next season. You often wind up guilt-ridden and remorseful because you feel like you have taken advantage of the shoe that has helped you trudge through snow and slush only to hide it out of sight when the sun is out and shining brightly. Fret not, my dear friend, because the sole existence of these shoes is to serve you in need. I never knew what my mother meant when she preached me - A shoe in need, is a shoe indeed, until I owned the pair of tall, black boots. These are the ones that help me keep my feet firmly planted on the ground even when the ground is covered with a sheet of ice and is a few feet off of the actual ground. These are the ones that add a sexy-touch to the winter blues. These are the ones that make me want to live a little longer and see the winter melt into spring. But when spring comes and I carefully pack them away into the box, I do it with very little regret. Because I know they will be there for me once again when I need them. Because I know that I will never belittle their services. Because I know that they have no significant existence out of the seasonal boundaries.

Oh! And we forgot to talk about the many shoes that we outgrew. The fancy shoe with floral design [that Barbie and you had in common] that had to be thrown away because your little toe was sticking outta the little hole at the end; the black shoe with the ugly buckle that you were forced to wear in school, the jodhpuris that you had to have because they went with your lucknow-chikan salwaar-kameez, etc etc. The jodhpuris might have been your favorite and you must have cried for a whole week when they did not fit anymore and you could not find the same type anywhere else in the town in the current size. But like everything else, you learn that nothing in life is permanent, and move on.

Shoes may come and shoes may go, but some stay on forever. These are the shoes that make your journey through life worthwhile. These are the ones that ballads galore have been written about. But never take any shoe for granted. Polish them with the right hued-polish and they will shine evermore. Give them the care and concern that is due and you have a shoe for life, a shoe to blog about.

[I do not provide any kind of counseling/advices on picking shoes, nor do I offer any shoe repair services. Sorry, if I misled you. And if you thought I was writing about shoes all this while, then I definitely must work on my writing skills.]