A Thorn in the...

About two weeks ago I was walking around Kiritbhai Patel’s organic farm near Jambusar (shout out to Mitul’s ancestral ‘hood!) and I must have stepped on a prickly pear or something because I got a thorn stuck into my right chapal. The problem is that it’s too short for me to remove from either the top or bottom of the sandal, but it’s just long enough that I feel a it pricking me sharply when I step over a rock at just the right angle (and as we’ve gone over there’s no such thing as a smooth road in India), or if my weight shifts to my toe enough. Just when I forget that it's there, I step in a way that reminds me of the little terror.

So what should I do? Is this grounds for dismissal of my chapals? What’s the standard protocol here? I love these chapals… LOWWWWEEE them. I’ve had them since freshman year of college when Pav famously noted that I would show up to midterms in Dwinelle for Stat 21 wearing sweats, socks, and my brown Bata chapals which was the only footwear which I felt comfortable to sit in for an hour. And I haven’t looked back since. Thorn in the chapal. It’s like the Indian equivalent of a thorn in the ass.