A Bag Habit

Today, as I was coming back from the Kshitij Arena, I happened to overtake a bunch of students. Fortunately for me, we all were on foot and hence I was able to hear what they were talking about for a little while. Mind you I wasn't eavesdropping.

The group had a Kgp guy and was accompanied by a couple of girls who looked like his friends from other colleges. They were discussing the scale and resplendence of Kshitij. Then I heard one of the girl comment :

"जब हमारे यहाँ कोइ गेस्ट आता है तो सारी लड़कियाँ साड़ी पहनती हैं। यहाँ कि लडकियाँ तो क्लास वाली जीन्स में ही बैग टाँग के चली जाती हैं।"

(Translation:"When some guest comes to our Institute, we all girls dress formally in sarees. Not like these Kgp ones who just go in the jeans they wore for the class and carrying a bag on their back.")

Did I mention that even I have noticed this umpteen times. Be it usual walk around the campus, or even things like guest reception, every time you will see all the organizing committee members (from Volu to VP) carrying a bag on their back.

I first noticed it in this year's Spring Fest, and I have reasons to believe that this is a new culture. It was when I saw one of the SF Core Committee members go up the dias to felicitate a guest. It goes without saying that he was wearing a bag on his back. I was surprised to see such rude behavior. Wasn't it known to him that he will have to go up the stage to welcome the guest? And even if he didn't, how much time it would have taken to take the bag off his shoulders? Then I saw repetition of this in almost every event I saw. I write almost here because there were a few in which I wasn't noticing any such thing. In all others, it was a sure sight. Just when I was about to dismiss it as an SF culture came Kshitij to bring me back the memories of Spring Fest.

These bags weren't also some special ones gifted to the members. I have seen them in a few varieties and without any Logo. Looking at the people around, it almost looks like a uniform for the event organizers. The only reasonable explanation for this looks like these people feel that wearing bags all the time makes them look like busy people. But almost all of the bags I saw were almost empty (at least looked that way from the outside). I wanted to ask someone regarding the origin of this 'tradition' but unfortunately it hasn't been possible as either the person I saw (and knew) was inaccessible or the person concerned was a stranger to me.

When I meet them, I want to ask them how this culture is doing them any good. Personally, if I were a Chief Guest to a function, and a student comes over the stage to greet me with a bag laden on his back, I would feel it very unprofessional and unwelcoming gesture, if not insulted by this casualness of the attitude. Sure wearing a bag makes a person look more busy, but it looks a lot unprofessional as well.