I can abstain from most things, but there is one thing that I cannot do without. The handbag. Not just one handbag, but, I must unabashedly confess, a closet full of them.
The only way to get rid of some is to give them away but after doing that, I crave for more of it to fill that gaping void and so the cycle of buying and giving away repeats itself. It used to be shoes but since corns, blisters and bunions appeared, I’ve resigned myself to sensible ones, which, sad to say, are certainly not the trendiest looking shoes.
Even as a child I, loved to toggle a little handbag across my arm when I went shopping with my mother. It was the perfect place to house the occasional treat or the handkerchief for the runny nose. (Yes, in those days we used embroidered handkerchiefs that were neatly ironed)
The fact that a handbag can be used to keep almost anything is also fodder for spoofs.
In The Return of Mr Bean Episode Two, we see the famous comedian at a restaurant. First, he writes his own birthday card, and orders a “Steak Ta-ta”. He doesn’t enjoy the steak and secretly disposes it in the ashtray, vase, bun, sugar bowl, the violinist’s trousers and yes, in another diner’s handbag!
Sometimes I wonder what people carry in their big handbags. Maybe a big handbag is like Doraemon’s front pocket that houses everything imaginable. Or it may be like Felix the Cat’s magic bag of wonders.
If clothes make the man, then handbags make the lady. I would like to think that what we have in our bags reveal a lot about who we are.
The usual stuff that we carry would be a purse, tissues, spectacles, pen, notebook and lipstick for a start.
The contents of bags we carry reflect the responsibilities we hold.
A graduate school student’s oversized satchel contains her laptop and notes and a young mother on her day out with the baby probably has disposable diapers in her bag as well. Back when I was doing freelance reporting, I even had a pair of beautiful shoes in my bag as I hopped from bus to train in my trainers.
The mind associates the things that we see lacking in our surroundings with the things that we must provide for ourselves.
For example, I can hardly find regular chilli sauce nor toothpicks at the cafe tables here. So, before leaving the house, I find myself putting strange stuff into my bag — sachets of chilli sauce, toothpicks, dental floss and other things. Sometimes the things that I put into my bag are not only for myself but also for the others that I’m going out with, just in case that friend, child or the beloved has forgotten to bring it. For instance, an extra pack of tissues always comes in handy.
So what goes into the handbag often spells practicality and multitasking.
Just the other day when I was out for lunch, I found that I could not finish the copious amount of food in front of me.
Needless to say, my eyes were bigger than my belly when I saw the menu. In most places here, diners do not bring home leftovers. Whatever is left on the plate goes into the bin.
That certainly would be a no-no for me, so out came a container from the handbag.
The beloved said I had to do it discreetly, but, I said I have lived long enough to do necessary things covertly without a shade of shame.
Apparently, the average handbag weighs one to two kilogrammes even though some may weigh a bit more.
The trend now is to have a small bag for essential items so that it can be taken out and transferred into any other bag.
Small is the new big, according to fashion gurus. Sometimes it is not just one small bag, but a few smaller bags in a big bag, as women opt for the modular approach.
To turn all philosophical, what we put into our handbag can be an object lesson in itself. When we actually give the contents of our bag a good look, we can repack it.
Throw out the unnecessary stuff so that we are not carrying a burden but a thing of beauty instead.
That is what is going to take us ahead, not weigh us down.
The writer was a lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Mara and now spends her days enjoying life as it is