PRINCESS AND HER SLIPPERS

Last evening, we had just finished tea and were waiting for a stray puppy who has now become our friend to come and play with us when a young colleague of mine came along with his little daughter about two years old riding past on his bike. Some instinct within me wanted to pick her up & hug her. So I called them over. It did not take much time to make friends with her. One toffee and a chocolate did the trick. She only spoke pure Marathi and me in Hindi but we started conversing and got engaged in an intense conversation ranging from colours, likes, favourites, dresses, shoes et al.

I touched her papa’s bike and she admonished me “majhi aahe”, I begged her pardon and took a few steps back. My car was standing by so I told her majhi car; she quickly replied majhi pan ghar aahe. I was impressed with this bundle of energy. I saw this darling wearing Kohlapuri chappals and told her Changli aahe and she told me she has three of them joining her pointer finger to the thumb and showing me three fingers. The father said, to take her near a footwear shop is like taking wife into a jewellery store. I winked at him as this reminded me of many things my daughter used to do at the same age.  

This reminded me of one such incident with my daughter. She was very fond of foot wear and she could tell any auntie in the Officer’s mess to take them off for her to do modelling. In those days offending a senior lady could become problematic but we sailed through.

One fine day we were in the market, in a place called Nabha. As we passed by a footwear shop she dragged us into it. She went in and asked for chappals. Looking at my daughter’s tiny size the shopkeeper started with all sorts of sandals for little girls like those squeaky ones and she rejected them all. Nahiiii was her straight answer. I was getting a little uneasy as we were getting late for some function. Finally, she could explain to the person that she wants to see adult size chappals. Well, it became a kind of a joke and both of us also wanted to understand the reason of rejection for the 50 she had seen till now.

This jolly sardarji gave up and said sorry puttar he doesn’t have one and my daughter started crying. It was a small shop; many others who also wanted to pick up their footwear were not happy with the attention being paid to her and rightly so. I told my wife lets pick her up and move otherwise there will be no end to this drama.

As we got down the steps of the shop she started pointing out to one slipper lying at the first step and we put her down. She picked up that ghissa hua chappal and went and showed it to the shopkeeper that I want like this one. Can you all imagine chappals completely worn out?  Remember those blue and white Bata chappals when they used to get old the blue colour used to pop out from under the thumb and in many one could count fingers like small little “aloos” due to wear and tear? She said aap ke paas aisi chappal nahi hai kya. That poor shopkeeper looked bewildered at my daughter’s choice. She told the him that Geeta didi ki tarah chappal chahiye. You can imagine our embarrassment.

The story didn’t end there as now we were more intrigued why was she so much in love with such throwaway chappals.  Next day my wife found out the secret of her infatuation for such chappals. Our Bai, poor lady used to wear one pair of such kind. While my wife used to wait for her to come to take care of our daughter while she went for her bath and change, Anika used to freak out and run around the whole house in Bai’s chappals.

Now, she is almost 18 and her love for slippers remains the same. She is as tall as me and now can carry herself in a six inch heel. She has shoes in all shapes and sizes but when I go looking for mine I can never find them where I left them last. The first thing is to ask her did you take mine and the answer is a simple, “NO”. The second thing is to go looking for them to her room; if still you cannot trace them then they would be in her bathroom.

Today, on meeting that little girl I got a little emotional remembering when my daughter was that age, chirpy and talkative like hell and super choosy about anything and everything. I remember my wife used to remind all Brigade ladies to hide their footwear with their saris but my daughter would walk up to any auntie and tell her to show her shoes, if she liked them she could  order her to take them off. My Commander’s wife used to call her and before she could ask for it she used to give them to her and that whole party we never had to bother about anything till we went for dinner and madam happily went bare foot.

Such small things lift you up so much. May God bless both these girls and I want my little princess to remain that dainty little sweet heart for ever but for how long? I wonder!!!!!!!!!!!

JAI HIND

© Noel Ellis