I thought pedicures were for the rich. We from the middle class never went for pedicures, an attitude probably learnt from my frugal parents. How wrong I was and was proved wrong probably 30 years ago by a friend, who gave me a pedicure for my birthday.And she took me to a proper chiropodist. Yes! The very same guy in Batas was feretted away to start his own little clinic in Woodlands which exists even today.

It was only then that I realised a pedicure is a must for me and more so after I turned diabetic. One can never be too careful about one’s feet. For chronic diabetics like me it is all important and has to be done at least once a month. Not the rubbish done in a beauty salon where they just scrape off dead skin and paint your toenails beautiful colours, with fancy nail paint. Nope! This is a proper clinic where the skilled chiropodist will not just clean your feet and trim your toenails, but he will remove calluses and corns and any fungal infections that may hit your nails.

A pedicure is not for everyone! I always drove myself to Woodlands from our old home in Castle Street. But ever since shifting to my grandfather and fathers property I have asked my husband to drive me there. Instead of just sitting outside and leafing through old magazines I decided to get him to have one as well. He hated it he said and had one to please me and will never, ever again!

That is why when my friend Keerti from Shalimar told me about one brother starting his own on St Mark’s Road, just walking distance for me, I spent the other evening there enjoying a leisurely pedicure. The man Jawad seemed to stare at me and I just brushed it off thinking maybe with the mask he was checking to see if he knew me.

Well he did and he was not wrong. He went through the motions of the 45 minute pedicure, buffing and cleaning and checking my feet minutely which I am very grateful for. Simply because I saw my father lose his toes in the Military Hospital. Dad was an uncontrolled diabetic and so very early in life we lost him and he died a horrible, painful death. I could not imagine it was that handsome and energetic officer who was such a guide and mentor through our growing years was reduced to a shadow of himself with the dreaded disease.
At the end of my pedicure, Jawad asked his teenage son to bring a laminated article and show it to me. Gosh! it was an article I had written about the Woodlands clinic with Jawad 20 years younger in it doing my feet. He could not stop smiling and I was overjoyed to see the article. What a small world this is and I am so glad to meet him again when I need the professional touch the most. Helping someone always pays me back 100 fold.

The feet are prime targets for uncontrolled diabetes and over time diabetics can even lose their legs. That is why we need pedicures to keep on top of the condition of our feet. A friend fairly recently had to get a leg amputated and that is my greatest dread. Mine are already deadening, but then I have been diabetic since age 35. I try jogging everyday to keep the march of diabetes at bay.

The pedicure is worth every penny one spends on it. It does not come cheap but it needs to get done. I enjoy it, the feel of the warm water, the cleaning off the dead skin, the trimming and buffing of nails and finally the use of Vaseline and Glycerine to soften the hard skin on the feet.