Navigating life on high heels and steely resolve

She removed her left shoe, pulled up the leg of her jeans and pointed to her shin. "All this is cement", she said. "Here, I can poke it with a fork and there's no feeling". It looked natural as her own skin had been used to cover up the prosthetic. Geetha said it was a celebratory lunch as she had emerged after a three-year health journey.

- SANDHYA MENDONCA

The people attending a recent discussion on consumer experience organised by Worxwide Consulting would have been stunned had they known that Geetha Panda, who was on her feet constantly moving around had a partially prosthetic leg. I knew it and marvelled at the poise and quiet confidence with which she navigated the room. I have known Geetha, currently the COO of Karsun India Solutions, as a corporate leader who's broken many glass ceilings. She was initially a client of our publishing company, and we developed a good rapport. Being single mothers was another bond.

We had met for lunch a couple of weeks before the event and being considerably shorter than me, she had to stretch upward to hug me. I joked about how she couldn't reach me even on her high heels. She removed her left shoe, pulled up the leg of her jeans and pointed to her shin. "All this is cement", she said. "Here, I can poke it with a fork and there's no feeling". It looked natural as her own skin had been used to cover up the prosthetic. To say I was gobsmacked would be an understatement. Geetha said it was a celebratory lunch as she had emerged after a three-year health journey that began with a misdiagnosed shin bone pain that led to multiple surgeries and consultations before she found successful treatment. The day her doctor told her she could wear her heels again was when she knew she would be fine.