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My Handbag….the Survival Kit!
Posted 6th June 2009 at 01:22 AM by twinsmom
A woman and her handbag are inseparable. Once, a favourite blogger in another site had written about the things she found in her handbag. That had inspired me to write this. I have a decent collection of handbags. I suppose there is nothing strange about this as many women possess dozens of them, to match their clothes, moods and the occasion. But so far I have never picked up handbags to match my dresses or saris. I tote a handbag for its utility value rather than to make any fashion statement!
Ask any teacher (the females of the species) and she’ll tell you just how inevitable an attachment a handbag is! While I was teaching, my handbags used to be huge, strong and with as many compartments as possible. As for the contents… it was literally a storehouse. There would be half a dozen red ink pens, as many blues and blacks and an occasional green ( to fish out and offer to your supervisor when she fumbles around for one to sign your gate pass for early exit from school…!) You will find rectangular pieces cut out from old greeting cards and invitation cards, modified into timetable cards and exam times and such invaluable information. In our school, we used to have these ‘zero periods’ to accommodate practice sessions of school activities. So, normal teaching periods would be chopped down, sending all timings and bells haywire. So it becomes essential to keep a record of the abridged timings…or you will be caught cooling your heels in the staffroom while there’s riot going on in the class where you are supposed to be!
Then, there’d be a list of student details. The administrative department and the Supervisors in the school used to take sadistic pleasure in demanding at the drop of a chalk, details of one’s class…like the number of Muslim, Christian and ‘other’ students, the details of students’ nationalities ( Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, GCC countries, UAE nationals etc, etc, etc…), the list of chronic fee defaulters, list of phone numbers of problem cases, so it was a challenge to carry such details in a niche in your bag from where you can flick it out with a flourish and finish that tedious task and get back to the task of teaching…
There’d, then, be rulers, pencils, markers, erasers, sometimes even staplers and pair of scissors. There’d be odd assortments like handmade Teachers’ Day cards, ‘I am Sorry’ notes from contrite students, chocolates from students celebrating birthdays, keys to the classroom cupboard, and a whole lot of lost and found paraphernalia collected during the term…sheets of Panadol to share among your colleagues as and when headaches rage…
There’ll always be a copy of the handwritten question paper for the coming exam (which you meant to type out well in time…but…sigh!), the draft of the syllabus breakup you made in the beginning of the term, floppy diskets, CDs, sometimes even a half eaten biscuit that you quickly wrapped up in a piece of tissue and stowed in when the bell rang too soon at the end of the break and you were too busy clearing some student’s doubt…the current year’s school almanac… Sometimes even a 200ml water bottle finds its way into this survival kit! My husband used to say he was too scared to open my ‘school’ handbag for fear of something springing out of it! He used to refer to it as a skip! One thing used to be conspicuous by its absence…MONEY! Teachers invariably carry little or no cash… maybe to drive home the point that we are ill-paid for the kind of work we do!
Old habits die hard… and even after quitting a teacher’s job, my handbag is still cluttered.
Instead of syllabus break up and question papers, I have bills, receipts, tickets, counterfoils. UAE malls have this funny habit of thrusting a fistful of coupons on you when you pay up after shopping. It starts with the Dubai shopping festival, then Sharjah Spring Festival, Summer Sales, School Reopening time, Christmas specials and ends with winter sales! Other than this there are promotions on Mall anniversaries! All those coupons are interred in my handbag, ( I have so far never won a single thing. When I scratch the ‘scratch and win’ coupon all I get is dirt under my nail!) When my shoulders start protesting against the weight they have to bear, and I am forced to ‘spring clean’ my handbag!
Spring cleaning the school handbag used to take place at regular intervals. Beginning of a new academic year, semester ends and the end of the academic year. But most of the clutter used to end up in the staff room locker (you just don’t know when a particular piece of paper may be required…!) or at home… till an irate husband, threw everything into the dustbin when you were in vacationing in India.
When my kids were young, my handbag used to have crayons, paper, medicines for all paediatric emergencies, packets of biscuits, chewies and wet-wipes. Now that they are grown up, I have only memories of those in them...
Cleaning the personal handbag involves a moral struggle. There are certain bills that I feel are unfit to pass under the eagle eye of the better half. Like a Dhs.75 bill for a lipstick, another 200 for a couple of books… Ignorance is bliss at times… when he is ignorant of such excesses on my part! Then there’d be coins, Indian and of UAE, lipsticks lost in the wilderness of the bag, addresses and phone numbers I was looking frantically for the previous week, feminine necessities, mobile, its charger, comb, a roll on perfume for emergencies, tissues, pens ( you will never find a teacher – ex or working- without at least two or three pens…) Panadol and Voveran by sheets and of course my wallet stuffed with medical cards, credit cards, ATM cards, license, photos of kids, husband, parents, business cards of husband, father, brother and whoever else gives it to you…more bills, counterfoils, receipts…
Buying a new handbag means transferring all these clutter into the new one. That is one reason I can’t be bothered to carry handbags matching my saris. For one thing, I have too many saris in various shades of green, blue, red and brown that it would be impossible to store all those matching purses and handbags in the limited storage space at home! So I always carry a universally matching black or beige handbag!
I admire women who find the time and energy to buy and remember to carry matching accessories. Some of my colleagues find time for matching sandals, shoes and bindis everyday. I love watching women at parties who are so color co-ordinated, they are a vision. But when it comes to emulating them…I am a colossal misfit. So I continue the way I am. Some call it clutter….I call it comfort.
Ask any teacher (the females of the species) and she’ll tell you just how inevitable an attachment a handbag is! While I was teaching, my handbags used to be huge, strong and with as many compartments as possible. As for the contents… it was literally a storehouse. There would be half a dozen red ink pens, as many blues and blacks and an occasional green ( to fish out and offer to your supervisor when she fumbles around for one to sign your gate pass for early exit from school…!) You will find rectangular pieces cut out from old greeting cards and invitation cards, modified into timetable cards and exam times and such invaluable information. In our school, we used to have these ‘zero periods’ to accommodate practice sessions of school activities. So, normal teaching periods would be chopped down, sending all timings and bells haywire. So it becomes essential to keep a record of the abridged timings…or you will be caught cooling your heels in the staffroom while there’s riot going on in the class where you are supposed to be!
Then, there’d be a list of student details. The administrative department and the Supervisors in the school used to take sadistic pleasure in demanding at the drop of a chalk, details of one’s class…like the number of Muslim, Christian and ‘other’ students, the details of students’ nationalities ( Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, GCC countries, UAE nationals etc, etc, etc…), the list of chronic fee defaulters, list of phone numbers of problem cases, so it was a challenge to carry such details in a niche in your bag from where you can flick it out with a flourish and finish that tedious task and get back to the task of teaching…
There’d, then, be rulers, pencils, markers, erasers, sometimes even staplers and pair of scissors. There’d be odd assortments like handmade Teachers’ Day cards, ‘I am Sorry’ notes from contrite students, chocolates from students celebrating birthdays, keys to the classroom cupboard, and a whole lot of lost and found paraphernalia collected during the term…sheets of Panadol to share among your colleagues as and when headaches rage…
There’ll always be a copy of the handwritten question paper for the coming exam (which you meant to type out well in time…but…sigh!), the draft of the syllabus breakup you made in the beginning of the term, floppy diskets, CDs, sometimes even a half eaten biscuit that you quickly wrapped up in a piece of tissue and stowed in when the bell rang too soon at the end of the break and you were too busy clearing some student’s doubt…the current year’s school almanac… Sometimes even a 200ml water bottle finds its way into this survival kit! My husband used to say he was too scared to open my ‘school’ handbag for fear of something springing out of it! He used to refer to it as a skip! One thing used to be conspicuous by its absence…MONEY! Teachers invariably carry little or no cash… maybe to drive home the point that we are ill-paid for the kind of work we do!
Old habits die hard… and even after quitting a teacher’s job, my handbag is still cluttered.
Instead of syllabus break up and question papers, I have bills, receipts, tickets, counterfoils. UAE malls have this funny habit of thrusting a fistful of coupons on you when you pay up after shopping. It starts with the Dubai shopping festival, then Sharjah Spring Festival, Summer Sales, School Reopening time, Christmas specials and ends with winter sales! Other than this there are promotions on Mall anniversaries! All those coupons are interred in my handbag, ( I have so far never won a single thing. When I scratch the ‘scratch and win’ coupon all I get is dirt under my nail!) When my shoulders start protesting against the weight they have to bear, and I am forced to ‘spring clean’ my handbag!
Spring cleaning the school handbag used to take place at regular intervals. Beginning of a new academic year, semester ends and the end of the academic year. But most of the clutter used to end up in the staff room locker (you just don’t know when a particular piece of paper may be required…!) or at home… till an irate husband, threw everything into the dustbin when you were in vacationing in India.
When my kids were young, my handbag used to have crayons, paper, medicines for all paediatric emergencies, packets of biscuits, chewies and wet-wipes. Now that they are grown up, I have only memories of those in them...
Cleaning the personal handbag involves a moral struggle. There are certain bills that I feel are unfit to pass under the eagle eye of the better half. Like a Dhs.75 bill for a lipstick, another 200 for a couple of books… Ignorance is bliss at times… when he is ignorant of such excesses on my part! Then there’d be coins, Indian and of UAE, lipsticks lost in the wilderness of the bag, addresses and phone numbers I was looking frantically for the previous week, feminine necessities, mobile, its charger, comb, a roll on perfume for emergencies, tissues, pens ( you will never find a teacher – ex or working- without at least two or three pens…) Panadol and Voveran by sheets and of course my wallet stuffed with medical cards, credit cards, ATM cards, license, photos of kids, husband, parents, business cards of husband, father, brother and whoever else gives it to you…more bills, counterfoils, receipts…
Buying a new handbag means transferring all these clutter into the new one. That is one reason I can’t be bothered to carry handbags matching my saris. For one thing, I have too many saris in various shades of green, blue, red and brown that it would be impossible to store all those matching purses and handbags in the limited storage space at home! So I always carry a universally matching black or beige handbag!
I admire women who find the time and energy to buy and remember to carry matching accessories. Some of my colleagues find time for matching sandals, shoes and bindis everyday. I love watching women at parties who are so color co-ordinated, they are a vision. But when it comes to emulating them…I am a colossal misfit. So I continue the way I am. Some call it clutter….I call it comfort.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Hi twinsmom,
I am right there with you. My handbag too consists of all that and more junk. My husband always asks me to clean up. But somehow I keep postponing things. I carry my handbag until it is really worn out.
I can add some more things to the ones already mentioned like bus tickets, shopping lists,bills from shops,recipes, phone no:s noted on backside of bills, safety pins etc.
Regards,
Abha.Posted 7th June 2009 at 12:20 PM by abhatv
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Hi Twinsmom,Abha
I too readily agree with what you said.I always try to clean my handbag taking out the junk and unwanted so it always remain less cluttered.Still there will be so many items which others think is unnecessary in a bag;)
I always dream of going at the least once to office without carrying a handbag, but even to a place 5minutes from home I cant afford going with out my dear handbag:)Posted 8th June 2009 at 05:43 AM by amihere
