London Diaries - Shoe it Away

Was walking down the road on my way back from office. 

Thinking I should buy a pair of shoes from London. 

Something to carry back from this place.

Making a nice filmy mental picture of myself.

A watch from New York, a tee from Thailand, a belt from Hong Kong, a shoe from London...

Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani.

Imagining SRK raise his hands in the SRKTM fashion and then swerve to one side tapping his hand on his heart.

But then...

A min later, the sole of my left shoe came off. 

Sans any provocation, treading on a normal road, without even the slightest preparatory hint... came off. 

Just like that. 

Off. 

Middle of the footpath, standing with 3 Marks & Spencer's Food polybags in one hand, a coke can in the other, a backpack, tie flying in the breeze, hair threatening to get uprooted - all I could do was blink and stare at my shoe. 

And the sole lying 3 inches behind it.

It was a sign.

As clear as a divine sign could ever be.

I had to buy a shoe in London.

Fate, it seems, is not without its own shopping list.

Content that I looked appropriately distressed as I limped, I made my way home.

Quietly scanned my gtalk list.

Swooped down on unsuspecting prey and narrated my by-now-marinated-and-dressed story.

Sufficiently alleviated of my misery, I stepped out of the house to go shopping.

In another pair of shoes.

Walked up to the railway station.

But then...

Weighed the prospect of contemplating dozens of shoes in multiple stores.

Took a detour.

Bought a tube of "UHU. El Pegamento Universal - fast, permanent, transparent, adjustable"

Stuck the sole back to the shoe.

Recollected the product-geography map I'd originally thought of.

Searched for a particular video on Youtube.

And as I polished the shoe...

*mera joota hai Japaani, yeh patloon Englishtaani, sir pe lal topi Roosi phir bhi dil hai Hindustani*