MAN-BAG THE GOOD OLD NDA SATCHEL

 There is a new accessory which is making waves and making heads turn, for a change this one belongs to the unfair sex. Funny isn't it; as traditionally it was the females of the species who could boast of a repertoire of clutches, purses, ornaments, danglers, necklaces and so on... Menfolk had to be satisfied with their watches and may be an odd bracelet barring of course late Bappi Lahiri whose collection of gold chains is legendary.  So what is this new kid on the block, well it is called a ‘Man-bag', and is fast acquiring a fashion status with their rich collection of colours, hue and styles.  

The ladies purses and their contents can best be described as "Bhanumati ka pitara" a box which contained all kinds of stuff, ranging from a safety pin to credit cards, watches, matching bindis, wearable accessories, mobile phones, lipstick, eyeliners, cash, combs, brushes, the list is endless. A lady without a purse appears severely handicapped, this piece keeps them  ready for the show forever. The masculine gender took pride in the fact that theirs was a simple life with no attachments of any kind and thus they were not required to carry anything other than their wallet which remained tucked in the back pocket invisible and unobtrusive. But "times they are a changin'"

Getting back to the man-bag, it may surprise you that we can claim some credit for having introduced it for mankind in general. In NDA, the cadets are issued satchels, the predecessor to this duffel. The satchel and its legendary capacity could house almost anything from a change of dress, from PT rig to Drill order or vice versa, swimming trunks, towels, eatables such as buns left over from the morning tea and of course books notebooks which is what it was meant to carry. Now those unlucky ones who have have not had the privilege of crossing and uncrossing the satchel, in other words the uninitiated, let me explain, since our daily timetable at times required us to attend PT in the morning and then move to the Drill square after having changed the dress without going back to our cabins, so all the items of dress had to be carried with us. Now Drill order, or the dress for Drill isn't simple, it comprised apart from Khaki Drill (KD) shorts and KD shirt, a pair of stockings, the garter flashes and of course, belt, boots and cap beret. Sometimes we had a swimming period scheduled after Drill and naturally we had to carry our towels along with the swimming trunks. 

An NDA cadet is perpetually hungry and some eatables such as buns and biscuits which we got with the morning Tea was also carried by some of us who with their ravenous appetites could put Kumbhakarna to shame. We carried these to the Gole market our own captive supermarket, where we could get hold of pastries, samosas, jalebis and stationary too which could all share the space in the satchel quite amicably. There were times when we packed breakfast for our seniors who were too busy and then it could contain toasts with butter, jam, fried eggs, cutlets, with no qualms for any stains anywhere.

The satchel and its mode of carriage conveyed your status in the steep hierarchy of the cadets, the lesser mortals carried them crossed on their shoulders, but the high and mighty, the venerable sixth termers carried them uncrossed on their shoulder even if threatened to slip off once in a while but the satchel couldn’t be crossed lest he be mistaken for a lowly second/third termer. The sergeants appointed during their fifth term are also accorded this privilege of carrying the satchel uncrossed. Merely crossing and uncrossing was not the only way to discern the seniority, the graffiti on the satchels also conveyed a lot not just about the cadet’s place in the pecking order but it provided a glimpse into his personality as well. The graffiti by itself calls for another blog, but suffice to say, the stars on the strap, one for a Brigadier and two for a General was a harbinger of their  future aspirations to the world at large. Although these one star and two star attained these exalted positions by virtue of losing a term or two, thereby earning the privilege of enjoying the hospitality of the academy for seven or eight terms as against the normal six which most of us did.

The satchel thus was every inch a man-bag and more. Incidentally those of us who were fans of “Friends”, the hilarious American sitcom may recall that even Joey Tribbiani (Matt leBlanc)took fancy to one in one of the episodes when Rachel introduced it to him.
Frankly with the host of things that we carry these days, especially the mobile phone with its ever increasing screen size which has outgrown our pockets and demanding a separate space, we may as well start carrying one, only thing to watch out for is whether we can cut the clutter.