43) My BAGWATI!

My BAGWATI!

Today I received my new bag. It is a multi-chain navy blue convertible backpack. Convertible because the backpack straps could be hidden inside a compartment, and it looks like an office handbag. I loved it the moment I saw it online, and around the same time, our family friends wanted to gift me something on account of my book being published, so this bag! Taking this bag in my hand flooded me with memories of the bags that I have used and bought so far.

The most exciting thing during school reopening time was buying a new bag every year. Which included convincing Mumma that the old bag is not enough, or it's torn, or about to become non-functional soon. And then going for bag shopping was like an event, similar to buying a house; both are equally difficult things to choose. Touching the bags, feeling them, fidgeting with the chains, looking at how spacious the interior of the bag is, will it be able to fit our tiffin and bottle (the most important things in a bag), and if it fits in all the above conditions, then its aesthetics should be trendy too. Sometimes it took more than one visit or more than one shop visit to finalise ‘THE BAG’ of the year.

Earlier, we used to buy those horizontal backpacks. They had two locks, and everything was kept horizontal in them. Then came the vertical backpacks, where we kept everything vertical. My new Bagwati is a mix of both; things are kept horizontally, and it is carried vertically (in backpack mode). 

Do you remember coming out of an examination hall and spotting your bag and feeling like you had spotted your home? Because bags are not just bags; they are really mini houses, they house our belongings. When we peek into them, we actually peek into a mini version of our house. The mini compartments are like dry balconies, which are just for psychologically fooling us; nothing really fits in there. The next medium-sized compartment for tiffin is like a mini kitchen, where we keep peeking in when we know something is interesting in there. Then the next medium-sized compartment is like a drawing room, where we keep notebooks, and some short textbooks, less space, less clutter; more like a well-kept room in the house to host guests (like if you want someone else to keep something in your bag, you ask them to keep it in this compartment). Then comes the last huge compartment, which is like the master bedroom; it has everything that did not fit anywhere else. Along with this, there is a laptop compartment, which is more like a half-bedroom (1.5BHK, it is that 0.5 BHK). It literally had no use in school bags, but we were fooled, in the same of a separate compartment. 

These mini houses become our home away from home when we are in school, college, or on a trip. When everything around is new and intimidating, a look into the bag can calm us and remind us of the purpose with which we filled the bag to be where we are. We often say, I travelled to so and so place, but it’s never just I, it is always ‘us’(I + BAG = US). It’s never a solotrip, Bagwati is always there. Watching ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ made me realise how a bag can be a character in itself. All our bags have a story to tell, sometimes even more interesting than we think. Someday, just sit and recall all the bags that you can recall and all the associated memories, and it will be a nostalgic trip down the memory lane.

My fondest memory of a bag is the one where I forgot my school bag at home and went to school, but that is a story for another blog. Let me know your crazy bag stories in the comment section of this blog.

PS. The name of the blog was given by my sister!