My Love For Shoes

Gone are the days when people gave no thought to the choice of their footwear. The importance of wearing the right kind of shoes cannot be overemphasized. It is practically impossible to go on with our lives with a single pair of footwear in this day and age. Can you imagine wearing the same pair at home, to work, to the market, or to any other event/party/marriage? I am sure you just shook your head.

My sister and I have an entire cabinet dedicated to the storage of our shoes, sandals, slippers, and all kinds of footwear. We recently visited one of the well-known shopping malls in India. The purpose of our visit was to shop for apparel-office and casual both (since we both are working). But we just could not stop ourselves from entering the inviting shoe stores. Men can never understand the love for shoes we women have. And to be very honest, even though we have so many pairs of footwear, we still don’t have enough. I forgot to mention before that half of them are old, worn out, or uncomfortable. My sister and I have almost the same shoe size, so we do have many common pairs. But there is something very wrong in the way she naturally walks (she knows that). All of her footwear become bootless within a few days.  And there is so much variety of shoes in Delhi. When we go to a mall or a market, we simply can’t avoid staring at all the lovely pairs. And we can’t just stare; we have to buy too, right?

Now that I have started talking about shoes, I would tell you about a funny incident that happened in my life. My mother, my sister, and I had gone to a local market near our house.  Our mother wanted to buy vegetables and we had just accompanied her. While she was bargaining, my sister and I suddenly spotted a newly opened shoe shop. We promised ourselves that we would just ‘peek through’ and come back. But old habits die hard. We went in and scanned all shelves, and came out with 2 bags full of shoes. I would never forget the expression on my mother’s face when she saw us with the bags. That day that amazing shoe store became our favourite shop. It has always been of great help in emergency situations (for instance, cousin’s wedding tonight and we forgot to buy matching footwear).

By now you must have comprehended the depth of our love for shoes. If not, you must see us shopping once!

The Father-Daughter Movie Buffs

While downloading the latest movies has become the trend with my generation, I still like to catch a new movie the old-fashioned way. And so I impatiently await each Friday when some new movie or the other hits the cinemas.

Battling the urge to go on ‘torrent’ and download the latest movies, or simply streaming it online –as easy as it all really is- I don’t quite enjoy a movie on my laptop’s tiny screen. No, I want the big, shiny silver screen experience. I’d go to Select Citywalk and watch check out a movie at PVR than on my laptop anyday! In my world, that’s how a movie ought to be watched.

Perhaps this love for movies and movie theatres alike has stemmed from my father. Ever since I can remember, movies have always been a ‘father-daughter’ thing for me. From Antz to Titanic, Babe in the Big City, Lion King… the days of my childhood are filled with memories of my father and I catching the first show of every good movie that hit the cinemas.

If you had to go to pvr and you planned to go to cafe in delhi all you had to do was ask us, we knew it all! Back then, and even now, kids my age would want to go with their friends for movies… But not me! Being the daddy’s girl that I was, I couldn’t even begin to fathom watching a good movie in the theatre without my father! So I’d end up watching all the Harry Potter movies twice –first with my father, and then my friends.

Even now, when my friends want to go to Select Citywalk to catch a movie, I always check first with my father. If he hasn’t watched it, then sorry guys, in a few days! I may not be a little girl anymore, but I have a gut feeling this ritual is going to go on for evermore –maybe even my kids will love to go to the movies with their grandfather!