It was a Monday morning, after a really good weekend (I went out for a nice trek with my friends on previous Saturday). I was in no mood to get ready for the Office – shaving, putting on the formals with “Tie” and rush to the bus stop – Oh man! Why do we have Mondays? Anyways life is life and you must go on, with this thought I woke up and lazily went to the bathroom. Fortunately my mom is there for a month, so I got a cup of refreshing tea and this added to the speed of things to the sluggish Monday morning. I took my bath, took one pair of formals from my wardrobe and put it on. Mummy prepared a nice breakfast for me, I don’t know how she is able to do this, doesn’t she feel the “Monday blues”???
When everything was done I went out into the balcony to my shoe rack to put on my shoes. I checked the top shelf, but there was nothing, then I checked the 2nd one and kept on doing this till I reached the bottom shelf, but there was no shoe at all, where have they gone? I was surprised, I asked mummy, she too was clueless. How on this earth can all the shoes go missing from inside a house? Then my neighbor came out, he saw me in the balcony, he smiled and said good morning. I tried to return a smile, but then the shoe was still fresh in my mind, I said “Oh man! My shoes!!” The dutiful neighbor told me about the shoe theft going on in our colony in the past few months, Oh no! Couldn’t he warned me a day before? Now what should I do? As it dawned upon me that there was a theft at my house last night, I realized that all my shoes (4 pairs in total) were stolen and I didn’t have anything to wear, except for the bathroom slippers. But how can I go to my office in bathroom slippers, that too on Monday morning?
After a while I tried to make myself come to terms with this new reality, so what should be my next course of action? Yeah, I have to purchase a new pair of shoes to reach office in time. But these shoe shops do not open until its 11 in the clock, oh I am in a mess. I called up my manager to inform him that I will be late or might not come at all. As with all other managers he asked for the reason. I narrated the story and then I heard a loud laughter at the other end. How can he laugh at my situation, but I too would have done the same if someone would have told me that “I can’t come to office coz I don’t have a pair of shoes to wear”. Man this was one of the weird reason I would have ever thought of for not going to office.
Okay, after settling the office affair, I turned my attention on planning how to fix the whole thing. It was “Sale season” in Bangalore, and I have never been so keen to follow the sale, suddenly I needed to. I checked the past weeks Bangalore Times for the best deals on shoe, this time lady luck was on my side. There was huge sale going on across all major stores. I listed the ones near my home and fixed the afternoon for my shoe shopping. It was about 10.30 am by now, and the Monday blues was again settling in, I thought to have a sleep. At least I deserve some more sleep after this great loss. Religiously, I went to my bed and asked mummy to wake me up in a couple of hours, after that I will go for my shoe shopping. Finally I woke up at 1.30 pm, now its lunch time, how can I shop empty stomach, so it’s time for lunch. Well time went by and it was 4.30 when I finally realized that I will have to buy something, I cannot miss another day at office. So I got ready, and asked mummy to come along with me, after all she will help me in making a better choice.
After a very long time I was there in the shop buying shoes with my mummy standing next to me. This time I was grown up, at least this is what I thought, but mummy still considers me a kinder garden kid for whom the best shoe is the BATA shoe – after all it lasts long and fits into the budget of a middle class family. But she failed to realize that India has moved beyond BATA. I tried to make her understand this reality, and after great difficulty she agreed that I can buy shoe of my choice (read other than BATA). It wasn’t that she understood the fact that there are other good shoes in the market, but I think it was more coz she realized that her son has come of age and must be allowed to make a choice of his own. Oh! this convincing was more difficult than anything I did for quite some time, and that too for a pair of shoes!!!
We spent close to an hour visiting 4-5 stores and it was already 7.00 pm, still I hadn’t bought anything which I can wear on my foot to the office tomorrow. I was utterly confused. So many brands, such tempting prices, and so little time to decide. How am I assumed to make a correct decision in such crunch situation? Man! I have to do something. Finally there was a shoe which I liked and fortunately mummy too liked it. I enquired the price, it was INR 2600.00, okay so what’s the discount, after its “Sale season” and I very well deserve a good deal. That bugger salesman told me that this particular pair is a “fresh stock” and there is no discount. How can you differentiate between shoes, this is utterly ridiculous, sale means sale for all, but here I am being told that the one which I like does not carry any discount. Probably mummy was right in suggesting BATA, but now after making her realize the virtues of all other brands how can I make her change this new reality. I cursed the day, I cursed the salesman, I cursed the thief and then pity myself, took out the credit card and offered my pocket to be shaved. By the time we reached home it was 8.30 pm. I took out my new shoe and looked at it, it was shining in the glow of tube light in the room. I put it back in my shoe rack and shifted the rack inside the house to safer place, far away from the reach or even the glaring eyes of any thief.
This was a lesson learnt the hard way!!
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