I was rummaging through my rather not-so-small office bag for a pen and to save the risk of getting irritated enough to throw the entire thing out of the window, I decided to empty my bag one at a time. These were the few things that came out of it – a box of Name cards, an eye-liner, a lip-gel, a comb, my wallet intact with my credit-cards, a lighter (No, I am not a smoker!), my ear-phones, my rather man-handled Nokia cell phone, (I really should be made the brand ambassador considering how it has withstood me for 2 yrs with my “royal” treatment) and last but not the least, what I was looking for – my pen.

A few reflections regarding the things in my bag – I am very far from being a typical girl who goes crazy over make-up, shopping, etc. In a more colloquial way, a tom-boy in its truest sense! Hence, an eye-liner, lip-gel and a comb is all I can possibly use to put forward a “presentable woman” for the world. Being a part of the Business Development team of a start-up named You-At India Pvt. Ltd. (www.you-at.com), I always have to be ready with an impromptu pitch to a potential customer and seal it with a name card, to finish with a professional touch. Hanging in between being a believer and an atheist, “agnostic” – would be a right word to describe me. I suppose – I was born a believer, being a passionate science student ruined that! The lighter in my bag is to light the morning candle with as much belief as I can possibly conjure in my half-groggy state to make my rather religious mum happy!

I got my first cell phone on my 18th birthday – Nokia 6610i and I am very fond of it. I still have the same one. I can’t imagine my life without it. It has all my daily reminders, contact details, etc. However, my “affections”, whether it’s for humans or inanimate objects, are NOT very obviously expressed. Hence, my Nokia isn’t exactly en-cased inside a protective cover and kept scratch less. It’s more like me – hardy and withstood the test-of-time! My day is never complete without – getting sick of listening to my cell phone ring and never getting enough of music! My ear-phones – my only access to music outside home – absolutely indispensable! “A complete music freak” would be an understatement when used to describe me.

My three years old, faithful wallet is almost always filled with only different credit cards and little or no cash. Not because, I am some millionaire but because I just avoid the tendency to make unnecessary expenditures that come along with being a University student. For your information, all the credit cards have a limit set by my very “trusting” mother. :p So don’t even start thinking – “How lucky!”

Last but not the least, my pen, which behaves more like a spoilt-brat and is never found till I have managed to utter some rather beautiful words of “veneration”, is my best friend. I manage to doodle when I am stiff bored at certain meetings, it often works as my hair-pin and sometimes the “wanna-be poet/writer” in me manages to pen down a few stray limericks.

All in all, my bag and its contents could as well be compared to a “musical composition” of my life. It is an insider into who I am, a figment of my being, a mini-collage representing me. I always like to “be-prepared”. Irrespective of whether the surprise is good or bad, I am not really fond of surprises. I could also just pick up my bag and go off for any meeting, party, travel overseas, etc and wouldn’t even think twice that I haven’t bothered dressing up or carrying anything else. I guess, it also reflects a bohemian “free-spirit” in me.  I am not very fond of being tied down to any place or thing for long and I always like going beyond norms, limits and boundaries. I am a traveler and would like to remain one. Hence, my bag is a “not-so musical” representation of the very “bohemian” me.