Well-fitting shoes

Shoes are my obsession. Flats, pumps, courts, killer heels - in different materials and colours - provide me the kind of aesthetic pleasure that would make a shoe-maker blush.

When I was younger, shoes really did not make much news because they were considered necessary to keep one's feet clean and protected.

They were dirty things and women who were harassed on the street used them to smack the erring lothario in the face, and many a time cheats, thieves and violence-prone young men were garlanded with shoes and paraded around the neighbourhood as the ultimate insult.

By the time the former First Lady of the Philippines – Imelda Marcos – became headline news because of the number of shoes in her closet, I just could not understand the fuss.

She was a president's wife and she wore her wardrobe of shoes or stored them, unlike the frustrated young men who have begun a new sport called “Shoe hurling''.

Pity the poor politicians who have become the choice targets. It used to be tomatoes, rotten eggs, green custard and other organic stuff that they received; but ever since Muntadar Al Zaidi, an Iraqi television reporter threw his shoes at former US President George Bush as a farewell gift/kiss from the Iraqi people, shoe hurling is fast becoming an international sport.

This February a 27-year-old German threw his smelly sneaker at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a speech at Cambridge University.

The latest incident happened on April 7 in India when Jarnail Singh, a Sikh journalist, got into an argument with Home Minister P. Chidam-baram and flung his sneaker at him.

All three were obviously not professional hurlers as they all missed their targets.

Muntadar, however, was beaten and sentenced to two years in prison (recently commuted to a year). The German was charged with a misdemeanour and got his knuckles rapped while the unapologetic Jarnail was “gently removed'' from the press conference on the orders of Chidambaram. Although all the acts were never officially condoned, all three came off as defiant heroes of their communities.

The sport is now becoming the last resort of frustrated people who want to make a point in a hurry and if you feel like throwing shoes at me after reading this please make it a pair of Jimmy Choo's.