Cinderella

 

The tale of “Cinderella” is no new tale to anyone. We all know that the prince couldn’t recognise his beloveds face and hence had to get all the women to wear the shoe “cinderella” left behind. The shoe! The shoe! What chaos it caused! It left an entire kingdom hanging on the string of hope that they could fit into the shoe and then live happily ever after with the prince. 

I had just been invited to my first ever panel discussion. I was extremely excited! For once, I was being asked questions rather than being the one asking the questions. 

The discussion was in Colombo and while I despise the heat I was excited to go and most importantly see my cousin! 

Like anyone I often have a dilemma when it comes to picking out an outfit so on our way to Colombo when I should have just one bag, I had one suitcase and an extra bag with potential outfits that I could wear. Now, the shoes need to match with these outfits right? So I had a few pairs of shoes as well (I had 4 pairs to be precise)

 We picked my cousin and went to grab breakfast as soon as we reached Colombo. We then went to get dressed. My cousin is very fashionable and does a fabulous job with make up. Unfortunately, Shaakya was sweating from head to toe so foundation was not an option.  So Lilly, my cousin put eye liner and lipstick. Feeling very grand I wore my dress and my pink heels. 

Lilly and I walked to the institute in which the panel discussion was taking place. Just when we had finished washing our hands and checking our temperature. I felt weird. I felt light. Shoots!! I’m going to faint! I thought. But wait… nothings blacking out.. or maybe I’m so excited that I feel light?? And then the horror dawned. 

My foot touched the ground and what was supposed to be a shoe now had turned inside out while my foot was on the cold wet tarred road. 

Oh crap. 

“Lilly.. My shoe broke..” 

“Oh shit! That’s ok don’t worry you can take my shoes” My cousin offered graciously without realising that she was two sizes smaller than me.

We decided to rush to the car and tell amma. Now, I don’t know how on earth Cinderella ran with one shoe. For a short while I wore the broken shoe and walked like a robot without even bending my knee. Clearly. That was pointless. With nothing left to do I removed the shoe my cousin grabbed the shoe and ran waving the shoe in the air. While I hopped, then skipped then walked with one heel and when I just couldn’t figure out what to do, I removed the good shoe and ran barefoot. 

I’m quite certain Cinderella had the same problems as me even though the movie shows her running gracefully even with one shoe! The only difference between cinderella and me was she had a prince running after her and oh boy let me tell you! I’m glad the place was empty and nobody saw me. The only witness for me was the security guard. 

My mom was shocked! While Lilly and I were laughing our heads off imagining how we would’ve looked like running. 

I was ready to wear either my moms or cousins shoe. But my mother had another plan. We had arrived earlier than expected and thankfully we were just 15 minutes away from the place we were staying at. So amma stepped on it so to say and drove. While I got ready to open the door and dart out the moment we arrived in front of the air B and B. While my cousin called her mum to narrate the event that unfollowed. 

As soon as we came in front of the air B and B I ran. I ran like my life depended on it. I didn’t even take the lift (The lift kept flickering.. the last thing I wanted was to get stuck in an elevator) I jumped and flung open the room door and grabbed my extra pair of shoes, I locked the door and flew down the stairs. The entire time I realised people were staring at my feet. Well, they had lady frantically with frizzy hair running bare foot muttering to herself “I’m going to be late! I’m going to be late!”. What was not to look at? 

I had apparently been so fast that amma amma had literally took her phone out of her bag and I had arrived. To be honest I don’t even remember running down the stairs. 

What surprised me genuinely with this event was the fact that we all laughed instead of panicking. We were pressed for time and my shoe broke. Ideally, I probably would’ve cried and thought the entire universe was against me. Instead here we were Lilly, me and amma laughing and in the midst of it all calling others and sharing this story. 

There is power and beauty in laughing. I think whenever we face a difficult situation we should laugh, it makes everything so much more less daunting than what we imagine it to be. 

But most importantly, I realised that you can laugh easily when you’re surrounded by people who love you and laugh with you rather than at you. Lilly and amma being there and laughing but at the same time reassuring me that everything would be ok  made my first ever panel discussion as memorable as ever! 

Life, is a whirlwind of highs and lows but through it all if you can laugh well then… I think everything becomes so much more enjoyable and even the lows seem high.