A shoemaker’s spiritual calling

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I was told Jimmy Choo was visiting Mumbai. Unfortunately, I was on a Punjab tour and was not able to meet him there, but fixed up to meet him for breakfast in Delhi, before he took the flight out of India.

My last stop in Punjab was the Golden Temple. The same evening, I took a flight back from Amritsar to Delhi. I was in a space of serenity and peace having absorbed the glory of Darbar Sahib.
Next morning, still in that same space, I pulled myself together to meet Mr Jimmy Choo at 8.30 am for breakfast. Little did I know I was to encounter more spirituality than I expected.
“We call her the nine heaven fairy,” he said with his twinkling bright eyes. “I have been a follower and believer in Kali Ma,” said the genius shoemaker, known to create the sexiest shoes in the world.
Jimmy Choo has been Her follower for the past 15 years. He communicates with His Goddess and she guides him through right and wrong. I looked into his content eyes and asked him if he is a Buddhist.
“Yes, I meditate and chant and through that and my master, I connected with my Goddess.” He wears a pendant of Kali Ma around his neck.
“I love India, the people here have changed,” he said, gazing outside the window. “The garden outside is beautiful. There is something very spiritual about it,” he said, with an aura around him that makes you very comfortable.
“I made my first shoe when I was 11, for my mother,” he said. “My father was a shoemaker and he taught me the skill. I am grateful for that. Tommy Yeardye (Tamara Mellon’s father) approached me. He said, ‘Jimmy, you have the skill, the talent and the name, now, let’s make you some money’,” he said. After that, there was no looking back.
“Are you rich now?” I asked him with a laugh. “I sold my image, not my soul. My richness is my skill. I can never be poor. Rich is in the heart and in the faith that you have for yourself,” he said. “It’s never who you are but what you become because of the people that surround you. People who believe in you bring out the best and help to carve your future with you,” he said, speaking softly.
Jimmy was here to speak to college students in Mumbai. “I love to teach and share what I have.” He does honorary teaching work for budding students with the British Council. He has donated two sketches for auction for the Japan cause.
It is rumoured that he wants to buy back his own brand. “When I read that Tower Brook wanted to sell Jimmy Choo, that was when I wanted to buy it back. My legal team is talking about millions and I am here teaching children,” he chuckled.
“We have to give 100 per cent to what and whom we love. That is true testimony to our commitment to love,” he said. “The biggest lesson I learnt is to be calm. Being calm brings you inner strength and peace. When you are angry, you say and do the wrong things, your judgment is never clear.”
He made a beautiful sketch for me on a lined scrap paper we found and wished me health and happiness. “Without these two, you can’t be successful,” he advised.
I stood tall on my Jimmy Choos to say goodbye. He took my hand and slowly wrote something on my palm with his finger. “This is from me, a gift,” he said and closed my hand into a tight fist. I held it for as long as I could.