Invest in a pair

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My smartest investment

Is there a quota of life changing experiences assigned to every person? I have never been in any danger of running out of mine.


An unabashed idealist at heart, I have been quite happily open to influences. Hugh Prather’s “Notes to myself” was one. The poem “Yesterday once more” was another. I never really got over John Galt’s character in “Atlas Shrugged”. And “Heathcliff” is certainly there, in some deep recess of my left auricle. In my mind’s eye, I can still see the striking imagery of “The French Lieutenant’s Woman.”


Then there have been people: JK Sir, S C Sood Sir, Maulshree, Kusum, my best friends from school: Sadhana, Rekha and Sitara. People who have touched my life and made me what I am today. Not forgetting the places I have lived in. They have seeped into my head and heart, colouring me deeply, Jhansi and Pachmarhi being right there at the top.


And just as I began to think my impressionable years were past, I found this pair. Two brown, regular, unpretentious Power walking shoes from Bata. I didn’t know it then but these would be my salvation for life. I have since experimented with the colour and make and padding and style. But the pair and the principle have been a constant.


I walk, therefore I am. I trudge when tired. I stride when elated. I shuffle when introspective. I march when chewing on a thought. But every day, without fail, I pull them on and get moving out of the house. Cobwebs begin to dissolve, feelings free up, and thoughts get lighter as I move on the legs. One odd day, the first kilometre might drag but the muscles warm up very soon and thereafter there is only motion. Forward !


Are you feeling low today? Do not lose another minute. Just walk. Did someone betray you? Pull them on and set out. Is a body ache bothering you? Strike out in your Powers. Did something wonderful happen in the course of the day? Well, just trot out. A pair of walking shoes is all you need to stay off depression, despair and despondency.


Stroll, stagger, saunter or tread, truck or trudge, pray move. All those finger rings sporting lucky gems, the endless auto-astro phone numbers, and the counsellor’s chair.....none of these can hold a candle to a pair of jogging or walking shoes. They have the potential to be every woman’s most valuable investment.


Lace them up and your “journey of a thousand miles will begin from under your single step”.