Champa takes a walk down the memory lane. She goes back many moons back to a short holiday in Switzerland. She reveals a hilarious incident of a carefree person, when she felt like Princess Ann in her Roman Holiday. Here’s her candid account in Different Truths.
We had been to Switzerland for a short holiday many summers back. I was very young then, still in my twenties. I had very carefully planned out not only my holiday outfits but the accessories too. I got a pair of white trouser suit stitched for the occasion, which indeed was a very extravagant thing to do. I also spent a lot on a pair of white pumps, embellished and well heeled, to go with my tailored suit.
We had one day to see the city of Zurich before taking the train to Interlaken and Mount Titlis. I wore my best dress that specially tailored white suit. We were in Switzerland after all and that was our anniversary day as well. After walking a while the much coveted white pumps of mine started pinching me badly first on the left foot and then on both. I tried a double layer of bandage and then also did a bit of padding up with the extra cotton wool, which I was carrying in my hand bag. Nothing worked.
That was a Sunday, I remember. All the shops in Zurich were closed. My other pair of shoes, the reliable sneakers was lying with the luggage, left at the railway station and we had already moved away quite far from that place. I had two options left. One was to cab back to the station, change into a comfortable pair of shoes and wait for few hours for the connecting train. The other option was of course to throw away those expensive white pumps and walk bare feet in the cobbled streets of Zurich and explore the city a little more.
I removed my hurting shoes and simply threw them off. First reaction of my husband was to get scandalised but then he too laughed. I walked around one of the fashionable cities in the world that day, without my shoes. That was many years back of course. It is a pity that happened much before this habit of getting clicked anywhere and anytime, caught on us or I would have surely got clicked and showed it to my children.
I have had many more fun holidays after that at even more exotic locations. But when today a market research survey questionnaire asked me about my most memorable holiday experience, I could only think of that special Sunday in Zurich and nothing else. Walking bare feet, wearing one of my most expensive outfit ever, was real fun. Why I have not tried that again, I thought! Did anyone stare at me, look around? I did not care to know, I was too engrossed in my new found freedom and joy.
That I could even for once forget to think, ‘what people would say’ makes me smile in glee, today. I have never been to Rome till now but I can perhaps never forget that one afternoon in my life when I did feel no less than Princess Ann in her very own ‘Roman Holiday’.
©Champa Srinivasan
Pic sourced by author.
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