On my daughter's high heeled shoes

This piece is dedicated to all my ardent readers who abuse me on my procrastination and ‘promise of a more productive tomorrow’ ; I finally decided to write when the abuses descended to bomb threats and booby trapped emails which procreate viruses on opening…

Shopping has never been my forte! It has always been something others are better than me at. I have done the minimalistic stuff during my courtship days and hid the yawns and fast emerging critical comments. But my wife was quick to latch on to my ennui and as we grew old, she was understanding enough to make sure my wallet was well informed and not me of the purchases ! Well, not to sound chauvinistic, she picked all the right things and made the right choices ( including me :-))


Now shoe mania – that is a different story… I am fond of shoes – well that is like saying that the Sultan of Brunei is rich! I am obsessed by shoes. The story is that as a kid I would wear my shoes in the morning and my mother would remove it only after I am fast asleep – otherwise I would not allow her. Being the spoilt first child of my parents – I did have my way in those days! Well, circa 2010, the disease has been genetically passed on to my 5 year old daughter. She is equally obsessed about shoes. The most popular pastime she has is to dress Barbie in different shoes physically or play one of those computer games of changing shoes of Barbie !


So, the last week, when I had a rare Saturday to spend time at home, we did a little 'father and daughter' shopping. I had to pick a regular black shoe (yeah, I like all colours of shoes as long it is black) and I thought of picking up a sandal for her. We spend exactly 5 minutes for my purchase and then we moved into the kids section. The offerings were not too much as it was regular store with shoes for all genders and ages.


She picked a silver beaded high heel shoe right out of one of her comic books. In the next 45 minutes, I coaxed her with every other model in the store (fearing some straight talk if I land up home with heeled shoes for her ). Every ploy in my book of negotiations fell flat as she did not budge from her stand and choice and I politely relented at the end…


In spite of my initial fears, I was pleasantly surprised to see her walk wearing them. There was a certain sense of poise and confidence which I found inexplicable. She seemed to have aged by another 5 years just wearing them. Well, may be my brain is playing the cuckoo, but I was just happy seeing her thrilled wearing it. Maybe that is what Jimmy Choo means when he says that ‘women in heels make men heel around them’ …