I still clearly remember purchasing two pairs of Adidas shoes with my first pay-cheque. Not that my first salary was substantial, but that probably was the only time that Adidas ran a Flat 50% Off sale in Bangalore J
Of the two, the one I really liked was the one with a primarily black-grey background with reflector silver strips all over. In the nights, when any vehicle’s headlights hit the shoes, they looked like zebra-skin on my feet, and at that age (I was all of 20 yrs old, highly impressionable, and desperately trying to make an impression of being a ‘hep guy’) these shoes were ‘god-send’ for me. And the other pair, well they were a little simpler in comparison, a navy blue background interspersed with white stripes. I well and truly loved both these pairs of shoes.
Back then I led quite an active lifestyle, with either basketball or cricket making it to my Saturday early morning schedule to which these shoes became a permanent fixture. Coupled with some other outstation trips which involved trekking in hills in Chikmaglur, some on and off jogging stints, some stints at the local gym, these shoes saw more than their fair share of wear and tear in their day.
After a while, corporate life caught me by the jugular, but these shoes didn’t lose their sheen or importance in my life. They were a regular fixture on all my weekend outings to restaurants or pubs and also followed me to various resorts at Coorg, Munnar, Goa and other local team offsite events organized by my first employer. Even after I quit my job and started pursuing my CAT coaching classes, these shoes adorned my unemployed, struggling feet.
They then came all the way to Indore with me and made numerous trips on the winding road of the hill, Hanuman Tekri on which the IIM Indore campus is located. All those midnight walks down to the gate, and back up the hill to the student hostels; these shoes were a constant companion whether I was in a good mood, bad mood, pensive mood, reflective mood or just plain and simple, drunk.
The first pair, the one with the reflective strips finally saw their demise after having walked an approximate 5 kms per day for 25 odd days in the sweltering coastal Tamilnadu summer of 2005 during my summer internship with a confectionary company. I was involved in a marketing project which involved me trudging the ‘markets’ of coastal Tamilnadu and these shoes stood me in good stead during all those long, sunny walks in that one month.
The other pair of shoes came all the way back to Bangalore when I finished my B Schooling and got back to the corporate groove of things. Once again, they were a regular fixture on my weekend outings and the occasional Fridays when I used to wear t-shirts, jeans and sneakers to office.
These shoes saw me getting married and shifting location to Hyderabad, and what’s more they also came with me across continents all the way to the US of A. They saw their first international airport outside India at Frankfurt where they walked with me for almost all of a kilometer and a half between the transit gates there. And that is when I guess they decided to give up on me.
I wonder if it was that long walk at Frankfurt International Airport that did it or whether it was their first sight of those lovely sneakers arranged on the racks at the Sunnyvale Walmart that did it, but finally, after 8 long years of being my constant companions, this pair of shoes decided that enough was enough and they just died down on me. I finally had to abandon them back in the US of A where my friend promptly picked them up and threw them in the trash, given that I couldn’t bring myself to do that.
Even today, when I think back of all the experiences that I have had wearing those two pairs of shoes, there is just too much nostalgia involved for me.
Am sure all you readers have your own favorite pair(s) of shoes as I had with these two pairs. Go ahead and share your experiences in the comments sections and enthrall all of us with your experiences with footwear.
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This post has been written for Project 365 : A post a day where the intention is to publish at least one post a day based on the prompts provided. Today’s prompt was to write about my favorite pair of shoes and where they had taken me.
Mahabore's Mumblings 
Every pair of shoes have their own story to say. Just like Cindrella’s. 🙂 The rare occasions of SALE of big brands in those days were such a welcome thing unlike the permanent SALE board that hangs on every shop these days. Isn’t it? 🙂
@Reks, so true, in those days a sale really meant a sale unlike nowadays where the prices are first hiked and then sold at ‘reduced’ prices just to make it look like a sale 😀
And given that I don’t have a shoe fetish like some other people I know, almost all my pairs of shoes have interesting tales to tell as well 😀
I like it how you took a seemingly mundane thing like shoes (yes, I know. Some people are going to kill me for saying that shoes are mundane – but looking at the larger picture) – and kind of weaved a very nostalgic post around it. Plus it gave us a lot of insight into a side of mahabore we don’t often get to see – such as the very physically active, trekking, world-travelling sides 🙂 Nice post Jai. And yes, even though I called them mundane on this post, I have my favourite pairs of shoes – all with their own stories to tell.
@Sid, I don’t know about trekking and world travelling, but yes, I have been extremely physically active in my school and college days, no doubts about that all 😀
And thanks for the kind words about the post itself mate 😀
I would never have imagined that this post was based on a prompt. Normally, if I were given the choice of choosing a prompt like this, I would not choose it. Which makes me appreciate how interesting you made this post sound. And to think that it was all about two pairs of shoes (no offense whatsoever to the shoes). Which in turn makes me appreciate writing as an art – it truly is an art. Enough of sharing my ‘insight’. As for shoes, aah – shoes! 😀 There are those that just sit on the rack and gather dust but you still don’t feel like throwing them out. I have a pair. Yup. And they have been great companions, indeed. 🙂
@ShethP, first up, welcome to the blog, and thank you so much for the kind words about the post itself 🙂
As for shoes, am sure most of us have this one pair which have some interesting stories to tell, don’t we ?
Shoes – I have an ongoing love-affair with shoes!! I love shoes – all sizes, shapes and colours! 😛
My life’s mission is to have a pair in every colour!! 😀
the one pair I remember vividly is a pair of black heels (3.5 inches!) which I used to wear to work (my first company).
I wore them in a Fashion Show… they weren’t very expensive and were unfortunately discarded when I started earning more and buying more expensive shoes.
Another pair was a pair of white sexy heels – oh! The shoes were sexy!! Unfortunately, I broke the heel in an accident which involved my luna avoiding to hit an old man in the middle of the street and me trying to avoid an oncoming bus.
nowadays – my fave pair is a pair of blue heels – they are cute, not too difficult to walk in and look great on my feet! 😀
(As you can see.. I can ramble on and on abt shoes! And don’t ask how many pairs I have!! 😉 )
@pixie, just one comment and you have three small stories about shoes there, so I don’t dare ask you how many pairs you actually have 😉
Shoes/chappals/slippers/floaters – the maximum ANY of them have been with me is for 6 months to an year. I barely form any kind of bonding with them. My dad never purchased ANY OTHER brand except Bata for me. For two reasons (1) I have super flat feet (2) He and my mom believe I never learnt how to walk properly
No matter what the quality of the shoes and how much ever they paid for it, I ALWAYS managed to break them/tear them somewhere or the other. Repairing them to a max of three times, and Appa would just give up and get me a new pair. Whenever I came to visit RD in Bombay during our courtship days, I have broken a pair of shoes. So the guy knew right from the start that he would have to keep buying me new ones every year. And I dont have more than 2 pair of shoes. If one breaks, wear the other 🙂
And guess what? My brat is exactly like me. *I can hear my parents laugh in glee everytime she breaks her shoes and I get bugged*
@R’s Mom, as the saying goes “what goes round comes around” and in your case you will end up spending as much money on shoes for the brat as much as your parents spent on yours 😉
First,I love your the new blog look. Kicking myself for missing a few posts. Sometimes all the reading gets overwhelming.
Second, this is a sweet honest shoe saga. I guess you value something when you buy it with your hard earned money. Also when there is a ‘first’ attached to it. Like your first visit to a place, your first salary, your first car or your first house.
@Alka, thank you for liking the new look, all credits go to the WordPress folks for having provided a nice clean look 🙂
As for the shoes, yes, they were the first ones that I bought with my own money and that’s the reason they were so extra special to me and had so many stories to tell 🙂