MY BLOG
THE FRENCH TUTOR & HIS GETA CHAPPALS
When my son joined the school in singapore,he had to choose between french / hindi as his second language and after contemplating a lot we decided that he should go for french. Now the next step was to hire a french tutor .There are many Indians in singapore who teach french but I was very clear in my mind that only a french guy should help my son with this language . An excellent Indian french tutor and a mediocre french tutor ,I will definitely go for the later. After doing enough research we finally found one such gentleman who was fitting into all our requirements and who agreed to come to our house to give lessons to my son.
So our this journey began and every tuesday he started coming to our house sharp at 5.00 in the evening. His name is very complicated so I shall address him as french tutor truout. This guy in himself is a style statement .Extremely soft spoken , master in his subject and above all very puntual. We all look for few qualities in others which attracts us towards them and makes them stay in our lives and so I too have few .The most important one which is underlined and written in bold ,italic in my requirements is that of puntuality .If this one quality I find in anyone, he/she earns my all respect else drives me totally crazy and insane. One of my eccentricities,as told by my highly unpunctual friend .
Anyways,It has been so many years now and I don't remember a single day when this person got delayed, not even by half a min.Thats one thing which makes him so likable and forces me to continue with him irrespective of few glitches.
By nature I am a very observant and an inquisitive person .My eyes will never miss anybody who is well groomed and immaculately dressed .So how can I have missed this guy .There is a difference between well dressed and stylishly dressed and this person belongs to the later category.He is extremely flambouyant, stylish and has a bohemian way of dressing.Everything about him is expensive, right from his Dr.morpen's bags ,to his collection of pens ,to his colorful hats / caps , to the perfumes he wears.His love for footwear is worth mentioning.The way he accessorize , he can surely beat any women .Any of his accessories I like,I have this habit of asking him to buy for me and pay him either instantly or once the purchase is done.This is a very common arrangement we have between us.
One day, I came back from my work and at the entrance of my house,I saw an amazingly bful pair of wooden chappals.I quickly recognised them as geta chappals,which usually are worn by geishas in japan and I remenber reading about them somewhere . They are traditional japanese footwears worn with kimonos .Due to the elevated base, In olden times japanese women used to wear them while working in agricultural fields so as to prevent their dresses from getting drenched. But seeing them outside my house,perplexed me for few reasons, one ,who is the geisha in my house and who is wearing them, second ,are they avaliable in singapore and third, are the commoners using them.I guessed that it has to be french tutor's as noone else has that kinda taste in my circle.
Anyways,I entered my house and as thought , it belonged to him.The first thing I asked after greeting him was about those chappals and from where did he buy them ,to which he replied,from Japan .This gentleman has a guest house in koyto and thats his second source of income and half of the time he sits in japan.So my second question as per my habit was" will you get a similar pair for me too ? And he happily agreed. Further he added that these are unisex footwear and if I want I can order for my betterhalf too. I happily nodded my head.
I forgot this incident and we went away for our respective vacations to japan and australia.After returning from holidays ,on one of the tuesdays the tutor comes to give lessons to my son and leaves behind both pairs of chappals with my helper. My helper hands over them to me in night and seeing them in my possession, lits up my eyes,They really were extremely bful,light wt and very classy.I asked my helper if the tutor told her how much I need to pay to which she was clueless.
Next week this guy comes home again and I thanked him for bringing such bful pairs of chappal .Further, I asked him the amount I need to pay and well ,well, listening to the amount he asked for , my eyes and mouth both remained wide open for few seconds .He asked me to pay "$950" for both . For those two pairs of wooden chappals I need to pay nearly half a lakh ? I just thought to myself .Suppressing my shocked emotions and pretending to be normal, I asked him again "I beg your pardon, how much do I need to pay ? and this time with the hope that he will say $95 ( which was the cost of those chappals in my mind) but to my extreme disappointment he again told "Madame $950 for both"
I didnt know how to react and I was hesitant to tell him that we do not wear this kinda exorbitantly expensive footwear. I had two options, first to pay him the money and not destroy my image which he was carrying and second to erase that false opinion and tell him the truth .Well,the second option suited me better . Instead of beating around the bush and creating an ostentatious image of mine, I decided to spill the beans .I mustered all my courage and told him that they are damn expensive and we do not invest such kinda money in footwears,so if it was possible for him to return them. I sincerely apologised for all the inconvenience caused to him.
Hearing that he was shocked and he gave expressions which clearly meant ......what the f**** ????? but he also bfully camouflaged them and after few unsuccessful attempts to sell them again to me,agreed to take it back .
As he left,I took a big sigh of relief ,dropped myself relaxingly on sofa and thought to myself as to how much I must have paid for the most expensive footwear in my collections..., 80$ , $100 ,$150...???
well,lets leave it here as not all secrets are meant to be shared .
But for sure, Next time I see anyone wearing geta chappals ,that without fail will bring a big smile on my face . I will always pat my back for not burying a big hole in my pocket for one such wooden chappal which in India we can buy for few hundreds and which we know by some other name "KHADAU" .
T