Mom bought a new sandal just 4 months after the previous one, that’s how the trouble started. “I’ve got no good sandal to walk with and you’re buying new ones every month.” Dad has got really good shoes and that too imported. But they are formal, fit only for office wear. He needs to go to church daily plus the morning walks and then the occasional trips … shoes are really a bad idea. We need sandals for casual wears. Since when did my father become so fashion conscious? I wondered!
The complaints continued almost daily whenever he saw the new sandals my mom had bought. We had to put an end to the complaints. So she took him one evening to a newly opened shoe store, branded one I should say. Well, the problem did not end there. As per mom’s narration he kept searching for a sandal for less than 250 bucks in the branded store much to his dismay. At last mom found one for him, costing 1500. A leap from 250 to 1500 was indigestible to him, but since he couldn’t get hold of a better one, he had to succumb to mom’s taste. And the thamasha began when he reached home with the new sandal. My brother shooed it and I commented the sandal reminded me of Gladiator! That was too much for him. He waited too long for a sandal and it disappointed him. Needless to say, more than the sandal itself, what disappointed him the most was its cost.
At last my brother cut a deal with him. He will exchange the sandals and get a better one for dad. Do you think my dad would agree to it? Definitely not! Why? The price! So there came a better one from my bro. He will get two new ones for the exchanged one. One for dad and the other for him. That sounded just perfect. And the very next day he went to the store, exchanged the Gladiator sandal and bought a new one, a Woodland, worth Rs. 3000! You can very well guess my dad’s reaction. But with the new sandal came a new problem, who will wear the new Woodland sandal?! Finally dad won and he gets to wear his sandals for the morning walks and to church.
The new trouble is he can’t pray peacefully at church. He has an eye fixed outside to see whether his 3k Woodland sandal is safe at the door. And at home, it occupies a prestigious position on top of the cupboard with the rest of the poor sandals feeling neglected and uncared for on the shoe rack outside the house.
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