Everyday Bag(gage?): What I Carry With Me

Current Handbag: Seville Tote and Shell by Lo and Sons

Ever since I can remember, I've been called some version of a Bag Lady and it's a pretty appropriate moniker. To be fair, I used to travel from Noida to college in North Campus, and then to work in Gurgaon. College had no clean water and toilets that didn't work. Work had long days (I'm talking 9 pm). So... it made sense I had so many bags. Of course, the weight took a toll on my back and shoulders and every once in a while, my back would seize up. Also, I start out organized but I am not the best at staying organized and so my handbag would become a black hole of sorts. If I needed one thing, six would have to come out first. As I turned thirty, I started to care more -- about the weight of things on me, about the look of things on me, and the ease of finding things. And lo and behold, there was Lo and Sons (see what I did there ha). A colleague introduced me to the brand and did a demo with her bag, where she was able to pull out both an orange and a pair of pumps and I was hooked. It's definitely a cult phenomenon, and if you are used to buying bags from TJ Maxx or Target, on the pricier side. I think it's worth the investment -- I was lucky that I got my first bag (The O.G.) at a Crossroads consignment shelf. Earlier this year I was ready to upgrade to a sleeker exterior, and I bought The Seville on a sale. I could go on and on about how structured and intuitive the inside pockets of Lo and Sons' bags are -- they are made for people who travel for work (so.. most of us). 

I'm also very curious about what other women carry in their handbags and purses, and confounded by those who are able to travel only with a crossbody (it's a mixture of admiration and envy, and not judgement). I'm a sucker for all the articles about what's in your bag types of articles and videos. I've been wanting to unpack mine for a minute -- both actually and in words as well. Today happened to be a holiday, and I had both the wish and energy to do this aka the Venn diagram space where life outside work happens. If you are still here for the ride, here we go :)

Phase I: Dumping It All Out

Alright so what you are seeing here is what happens when I randomly clutch things from the bag and dump them on the floor. The inside of the bag was not this chaotic (I think). Still it's a lot and I try to keep my stuff in categories but that clearly was not what happened here.

Teatro ZinZanni

 As my mom's trip winds up, I was looking for a play or performance that I could take her to, as a fun, one last thing to do at the end of the trip. None of the current plays appealed very much to me, and so I decided to look for something more magic or musical-like. For the record, I strongly dislike musicals and prefer my dialogues spoken and not sung. But this wasn't for me. I found something called 'Teatro ZinZanni' or as it's described 'Kit Kat Club on Acid'. Coincidentally we had been watching the season five finale of Schitt's Creek and this felt intriguing. So I did a little research, looked for discounted tickets and took the plunge -- the tickets were a pretty penny, this whole venture cost me two hundred plus. I am trying to shift my discretionary spending away from shopping and towards experiences so...

It wasn't the best day to head downtown because the Chicago Marathon was taking place and we had to walk a couple of blocks in the truly windy city. Once we reached the venue, there was an actual red carpet towards the elevator. We headed upstairs, there was coat check and a photo booth and a boutique store to buy things and a bar. I've been trying to be more fiscally wise and I was pretty determined to not buy random things (and tbh as much as I love my booze, noon on a Sunday was a bit early for me). We got 'upgraded', which was the obvious result of the show not being sold out but hey, I am not complaining. 

Stacey Abrams: Leading from the Outside

On Saturday, I attended a talk organized as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. The talk was with Stacey Abrams, whose nomination and work for the post of governor in Georgia, as she rightly said, was stolen from her through gerrymandering, voter suppression and suchlike. I found about the event through a whimsical google search for things to do in Chicago and I am so glad I did. It was a mess of a day, with a freak winterstorm breaking the streak of good weather we had. That is not surprising to be honest; it's one of those things I have to come to expect from the midwest, don't pack away your snow gear until it's June.  The auditorium filled up and the demographic was largely older. What was unexpected was that Stacey's introduction would be done by Lori Lightfoot, mayor-elect. 

ThredUp: My Experience

I think I first heard about ThredUp through the Call Your Girlfriend podcast. Ever since I can remember, beautiful clothes have fascinated me. Do you remember paper cutout dolls? Cutting out dresses for them and coloring them was one of the my favorite things to do as a tween. For a few years in my life I thought I was going to be a fashion designer; I drew dresses and dresses anywhere I could. But eventually I chose Economics and I am glad for that -- I don't think I would have made it in the fashion industry; numerous as they were, my sketches weren't particularly precise.

Theater Week: Fulfillment Center and The Realistic Joneses

Chicago Theater Week is coming up and it is probably one of the most interesting weeks of the year for me. Of course, it's never just a week and plays start before the week and continue on afterwards.


In my first year I went to four plays in a week. That was an overkill and in years since, I have used a different approach.What I value most from TW is that it introduces me to theaters that I absolutely did not know about. The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Chicago Theater etc are good but the theater there isn't always what I enjoy. In recent months, the plays that I see on there are also not plays I want to watch -- either the description feels too vague or the plot is just not for me. I know that I like my plays to be at least somewhat solid -- I need a beginning, a story and some sort of an end. Metaphors and all are fine in small doses, but if everything is a metaphor for something or a tangent, then the play is not for me.  Note, I am not calling them bad plays. They have their place and they have their people. I am just not one of them.

In the last two weeks, we went for two plays and honestly I was pleasantly surprised (we've seen some that felt real shitty and a few months ago, walked out of one at Steppenwolf). I must say they were both at small theaters, one with a very bare bones set. Both have fairly tight seating, no coat checks and both these plays had no intermissions. If you are like me and have to pee pretty regularly, that is not a great thing. Also, if like me you have at least two bags post the work day, plus a giant coat, it is cramped. But I recognize that this is the price of watching quality theater put on by people/groups that do not have access to large amounts of donations and grants in the same way I imagine the Goodmans and Steppenwolfs do.

In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri

I am very ambitious in my borrowings from the public library. I am fascinated by the extent of its collections, the ability to check out an e-book and read it on my Kindle, the neat stacks of books. But of course, I don't always manage to complete or even start the large number of books I check out. I realized a few days ago that I had Jhumpa Lahiri's latest book 'In Other Words' and it was due soon. Books as new as that are rarely available to re-issue. I opened it last evening only to realize that it was in Italian and English. It is the story of her love and learning of Italian, learning to speak, read and write in Italian. 

The No-Nonsense Guide to International Development

I am doing an independent study for a class and part of the 'research' (and I am using that term with a little bit of irony these days, and that's a post for another day) is understanding the history and evolution of development studies as a field. This of course necessitates an understanding, even if cursory, of the history of development. Ambiguous, contentious, contested, the list of adjectives is endless and is you can see fraught with doubt. Of course at this stage in my program I cannot claim complete ignorance of the history of development, but my understanding is fragmented, often starting arbitrarily post the second World War. I am not going to devote this post to rehash what has been said and written eloquently by many others, I will save that for my'research'. But I will strongly recommend 'The No-Nonsense Guide to International Development' by Maggie Black to you.