It is very strange how thoughts of a blog makes its presence felt, in the mind. They can be so random and so unexpected and that’s the beauty of it – the spontaineity.

Thoughts for this blog occured to me when I was waiting at the baggage reclaim carousel, at an airport. So many kinds of bags and trolleys and suitcases. As I waited for my trolley to arrive, I had that wide wide smile on my face looking at all those going past me. I thought – what if a conversation happened between the suitcase and the trolley and the bag and the whatever, that is carried on journeys.

So here’s the conversation between the duffel bag or holdall (without wheels and for the purpose of this blog called, duffel), the soft shell trolley (soft shell), the hard shell (hard shell) trolley and the suitcase ( without wheels and for the purpose of this blog called suitcase), as they were waiting along with their human carriers, just before check-in. As always, since they occured in my mind, their conversation also draws parallels to daily life :-).

soft shell: Oh my!! We all seem to be more in number than the humans here, isn’t it? In different sizes and shapes and colours. Many of us have something put on us, so that humans can identify us. Though I wonder why they have to put something on us. They should be knowing how we look, given that they spend so much time choosing us.

hard shell: There are so many of us of a similar type and colour and shape. Differentiating us can be tough for them. Since they have chosen us, they think we belong to them and have to stamp their identity on us, I guess.

suitcase: That’s where I stand out. There are less of my kind and we are easy to find. That’s the case with my friend duffel too.

duffel: Speak for yourself, suitcase. I am more found that you are. May not be in airports but definitely in other places.

soft shell: Well!!! Despite the differences we all have in the way we look and are shaped, we carry the same thing inside of us, isn’t it? Baggage!!!

hard shell: People think I am sturdy and can hold whatever baggage they carry. But can I? My sturdy exterior is only a protection and if I am not handled well, I can break. When I break, all that I hold within me is out in the open for all to see.

soft shell: Interesting!! People buy me because of my soft exterior and they think I can hold and hold. They also see that I have an extra zip that can be used if they stuff me with a lot of baggage. They think I can push my boundary.

However, I also think that soft exterior of mine is taken for granted by others. They think I can take whatever they load in me. I am loaded or rather stuffed.

hard shell: How do you take that load? Don’t you feel heavy? Can’t you tell them that you can’t take it anymore?

soft shell: That’s my limitation. The only way I can tell them is when I burst in my seams. I protest when they try to close me and zip me. I don’t close and so tey make so many adjustments, that I buckle under pressure and yield to them. When I can’t take it anymore, I tear up. My human carriers make their (a)mendments but the patchwork is shortlived. Many people who carry me identify themselves with me.

duffel: I am a smaller and a different version of you, soft shell. People these days don’t prefer me. I belong to the ‘old tradition’ category. Those days I was very popular. I would be given free when people used to buy things of a certain amount, at stores. Now also the practice is seen but with  the advent of you and hard shell, we are no longer of use, that much. You are the AI, to me the google.. or you are the online dictionary, to me the print dictionary.

soft shell and hard shell (in unison): Technology and ease of use, my dear.

suitcase: I travel in the same boat as you, duffel; just that I am much lesser in use than you are. I don’t have wheels like soft shell and hard shell and am not easy to move around. As a suicase, I come both as a soft shell and hard shell; but whichever way it is, I need to be carried by the human carriers. They find me cumbersome to carry. To carry themselves and me, is a ton of a load, isn’t it? So what do they do? They hand me over or rather outsource the services of carrying me, to someone else. That person takes my load willingly, because they need the money they get, carrying me. I am also an ‘old tradition’. With the arrival of soft shell and hard shell, I have now become redundant. People don’t carry me around. Like some human carriers leave their baggage at home and go out, people who use me, do the same.

hard shell: Hmmmn. That day I will face too, suitcase. As I was saying earlier, people buy me because I am hard, the way they bought you. You have gone thru’ a lot more hardships, suicase and therefore will be able to take more uncertainities than me. I am more a today’s child and my resilience isn’t as much. People throw me around as I look hard on the outside. There is a breaking point when I will break too, when I am thrown too much. People are mistaken by my external hard looks. I have a soft side too that I don’t reveal much, lest people reject me.

duffel: You know the biggest advantage I possess? I have two handles which kind of balances the load in me, when people carry me. Sometimes, two people decide to carry me, each one holding one handle and they split the weight of me between themselves. Interesting, it is like two people shouldering one heavy load of a phase of their lives; with each one offering support to the other. At the end, when they set me down at the destination, it’s a paired effort, giving both of them a sense of achievement of jointly sharing the load of life.

hard shell: I do envy one of our kind though.

soft shell: Envy? Why? And who?

hard shell: You know the small trolley? Sometimes I wish I was that. People don’t carry much in that and it is lighter.

soft shell: So?

hard shell: I wish people carry lesser baggage instead of carrying so much. When they travel light, they are also letting go of the need to carry much isn’t it? The trolley is light, the baggage is light and they feel light too and not so cumbersome. I think people have gotten used to stuffing so much that they have forgotten what it feels to be light.

duffel: You are giving advice to humans? They don’t take it if you give it to them free.

hard shell: Who cares? They won’t hear what I am saying anyway. I wish that they neither stuff their baggage nor their mind, with things they don’t want for their travel or their life.

suitcase: What do you want them to do? They won’t hear the advice you give but I hear you.

hard shell: Since I travel with them wherever they go, I hear them talking to others and to themselves. They carry within themselves baggage from many years, in their mind – People who have hurt them, betrayed them, what they didn’t do, what they did wrong, decsions that they made that turned out to be not the best of desisions etc etc. They keep adding new baggage to the old ones.

If they let go of the old baggage, they will feel lighter before they load themselves with the new baggage. Many find it hard to let go.

duffel: Let me think positively – what happens if they let go of the past baggage?

hard shell: Well, in the gap or period between the time they let go of the old baggage and take on the new one, they feel light. When they feel light, it gives them a sense of floating.. They feel as though they have wings that are powered to make them fly. As they fly high to touch the sky, they power themselves with more knowledge and strength. Empowerment!!

– People have betrayed and hurt them – It’s ok. They have learnt the other side of people and that should empower them to be wise in relationship building.

– Actions they didn’t take or decisions that have gone wrong – It’s ok to make mistakes and the key is to learn and move on. When they move on, they learn the skill to let go and not tie themselves to the past.

– When they move on in life constantly – they learn, they grow, they become knowledgeable, they become wiser – they let go more and empower themselves more.

As they move on, they learn to travel light, both baggage wise and life wise!!

duffel, suicase and soft shell: Oh my god!! If that happens, we become redundant and no longer needed.

hard shell: We may not be needed in our current forms or needed lesser. More of us in smaller forms of us will be needed.

Humans being humans will carry baggage all the time, just that they carry light and less. We grow in number and they grow up!!