---
title: Open sandals
date: 2026-01-03T09:18:21+08:00
categories:
  - how-i-do-things
  - funny
  - interesting-experiences
---

My sandals landed me in trouble twice in December. And that's not uncommon.

Mr Krishnan and I were meeting. He suggested:

> Good morning. Sunday 07/12/25 breakfast at 09:00 am at the Bangalore Club Residency Road (not far from Koramangala)?

... but knowing me, he also added:

> These clubs are peculiar and may insist on no round necked t-shirt or no open sandals. If you have ideological issues with that, no problem and I will suggest another venue.

I shared this in reply...

![A picture of my foot in sandals](https://files.s-anand.net/images/2025-12-05-slippers.webp)

... and we met at [Ballal Residency](https://maps.app.goo.gl/62a2ACmoe5GGtwXE6) instead.

---

I've been buying the [_same_ sandals](https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00IZ9801O) for 8 years now. About twice a year.

- 4 Aug 2018
- 27 Feb 2019
- 14 Dec 2019
- 6 Feb 2020
- 4 Dec 2020
- 16 Sep 2021
- (Hmm.... what happened in 2022?)
- 4 Feb 2023
- 23 May 2023
- 6 Apr 2024
- (Bought at a store, not Amazon)
- 29 Jan 2025
- 5 Nov 2025

They work remarkably well. **Comfortable** (no break-in period, good to walk in, doesn't slip off.) **Durable** (though the bottom center wearing out after 6 months.) **Cheap** (and staying cheap, around ₹500 over the years.) **Maintainable** (just wash them.) **All-weather** (though socks helps when snowing.) **Stylish** (well, at least to me.)

The only hitch is that other people don't always like them. Usually [Naveen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/naveengattu/) gives me his spares for important meetings or TV. We even kept a spare for me at our Hyderabad office though I never used them.

Where I get into trouble is usually in places with... "too much atmosphere".

![Remember the Calvin & Hobbes strip where Calvin eats at a restaurant with "too much atmosphere"?](https://picayune.uclick.com/comics/ch/1989/ch890203.gif)

On 31 Dec, my wife booked us for a New Year party at [Ce La Vi](https://sg.celavi.com/) - the tallest spot in Singapore, and with a great view of the fireworks.

And a dress code we were not aware of. ["Gentlemen must be in a shirt, covered shoes."](https://sg.celavi.com/faq).

After 5 minutes of trying to persuade the gentle yet firm manager, I wished my family a happy new year and walked back home enjoying the fireworks along with _thousands_ of others on the streets.

In open air. And open sandals.

[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sanand0_my-sandals-landed-me-in-trouble-twice-in-activity-7413034862275694592-bkgb)