Umbrellas and Shoes

(Day 65 of 112)

I’m a Bombay girl. When it rains, you bring out the floaters and fold up your jeans. Never do you wear bulky shoes that are likely to get totally drenched in your first jaunt out in the rain and then not dry for the whole monsoon season. You also carry compact umbrellas that fit into your purse when closed and when open are not likely to mark a personal space of about 3 feet all around.

But in Shimla when it rains, giant umbrellas emerge. These apparently are multipurpose and people use them as walking sticks. There can be no other reason for making them so large. Unless they’re trying to encourage romance and/or economy by making umbrellas big enough to comfortably accommodate 2 large people or an entire family of tiny people.

Additionally in Shimla when it rains people walk out wearing sport shoes and the like, keeping their feet totally covered. Now since I was wearing floaters, my feet got wet. This, I now understand is the fastest way of falling ill in the cold (like I wasn’t already coughing and rasping like I was dying!).

So what was I to do? Nothing except follow the mother-in-law into a Reebok’s outlet and get fitted for some new shoes, the kind that would not let my feet get wet. That they happen to be super-comfy and very cute is not important here.

And so what with giant multicoloured, pinstriped, frilly umbrellas which could alternatively be used as weapons of self-defence and the very valid excuse to buy new shoes, my trips to the Mall are becoming more and more interesting everyday. It might prove to be just the kind of material I needed for this blog!