Shoe Karma

The whole of last month was spent building up to my trip to the motherland, and here I am 2 weeks in, having worked remotely, started yoga classes, taken a trip and combated some crappy food poisoning. I am on the mend now, and well enough to blog. :P

My entire family is obsessed with Indian classical music, and we make it a point to go to as many live performances as possible. On one such recent occasion, the whole shebang had made its way to a concert in the city, in a relatively new auditorium within a temple complex. By shebang I mean mum, dad, 1 grandfather, 2 grandmums and a great-grandmum! My poor parents probably feel like they're kindergarten teachers taking stubborn children on an excursion, complete with bathroom visits, the inability to sit still for more than 10 minutes at a stretch, and the insane amount of resistance to anything that might make their lives (and that of my folks) a little easier. They weren't kidding when they coined the term 'second childhood'.

Anyway, the concert was great, and it was time to leave, not to mention that it was pretty late in the evening. Out they walked, only to find that the men had absconded someplace with no warning. So the rest waited for about 15 minutes near the car outside, and finally spotted my dad and grandfather striding towards the car, the latter visibly upset about something. On closer observation, we noticed that my grandad was barefoot, brandishing a lone slipper in one hand, and a cup of 'prasadam' in the other. When he reached the gaggle of ladies, he began offering them the prasadam while dangerously swinging his slipper close to their faces with some wild gesticulations of his other arm. My mother, quite baffled by this point, asked him why he was holding his slipper, to which he responded - "Yaaro shaniyan yennoda oru seruppa thirudita!" meaning "Some worthless individual has made off with one of my slippers!". My mother then asked him what use one slipper was going to be. My grandad in his innate naivete, said "Will they not give me a matching one at the shop?" Everyone around him asked if he was mad, and then he said.."I don't care..I'm going to hang on to this one in case the other turns up someplace". Humouring this completely ridiculous notion, everyone got in the car and went home.

My grandmothers were having their usual morning tete-a-tete, and one says - "I cannot imagine who could have taken your husband's single slipper. Would they have had no clue that they are wearing 2 completely different things on either foot?" The response was.."I don't know, maybe it is possible to not realize such a thing at all..it is pretty stupid though." And she proceeded to go upstairs to her flat. When she stepped in the door, she saw that miraculously, both my grandad's slippers were there! She ran to ask if he had gone back to look for it, and was met with a 'Are you nuts!?' look. My grandfather then realized the import of what she was asking, and was overjoyed to discover his move of keeping the other slipper had reaped such heavy rewards. My grandmother, still very confused about what could have happened, decided to step out to get some groceries, and realized that one of her slippers was missing.

Of course, this could only mean one thing. The culprit and thief of the lone slipper had been her all along! In her haste to get my great-grandmother into the car the previous night, she had put on one slipper of hers and one of my grandfathers and had merrily returned home. My mother when told of this sudden and startling development, asked between convulsions of laughter how she could possibly not have realized this, to which she said..I was walking all awkward, but I thought it was my spondilitis acting up.