Posted by Saying good bye to our items of daily use is a hard thing. If you are the kind of person who has been pulling out cash from the same wallet for the past 3 years or been wearing the same wrist watch since college, then you may understand the sentiment. Bidding adieu to such personal pieces of item is not easy, finding their replacement is even harder. This is the sort of cross-way am right now in, as I discover new fraying ends of my old leather purse every day.
This humble leather purse was a give-away from my cousin when she was in college with an ever-flowing cupboard of bags. I was asked to pick one from her selection during a cleaning spree. I picked this particular one because I remember it to be small enough for my school uniform’s skirt pocket yet big and spacious enough to hold notes, coins and cards. It has been my purse ever since.
This leather comfort came from where most Bengalis in Kolkata buy their first leather purse, Sree Leathers. Being old, this purse carries vestiges of the pre-smartphone era when purses had a special back flip to slide in slender Nokia phones. I had been lately using it to keep my keys and shopping list. However, graduation, post graduation and six months into my first jobs, I finally feel I need to own a new one. Old leather purses become vestigial organs we never wish to be operated on.
Finding the next purse becomes almost as sacred as imprinting. There can only be one perfect purse of size, shape, colour and texture that will finally be able to replace your old one. For me, I found it in a Lifestyle store amidst longer than my palm purses. Black textured leather with a gold tassel hanging from the corner, the palm friendly size of it instantly prompted me to reach for it and possibly imprint on it.
For a former roommate and close friend, Uttirna, her big black leather purse with a bow on top was an heirloom of sorts. Gifted to her grandmother some 30 years ago, Uttirna sneaked it out under the privy eyes of her mother and aunt and has never let go of it, “The stitch and the inner lining is so good that you can keep at least two phones and keys without worrying about the leather getting damaged.” Utility amalgated with fashion seems to have been the bigger selling point here.
On a more slender, sleeker model, like my new purse, utility seems to be amiss. It was only when I was handed over change in coins that I realized, my new purse did not fashion a zipper to hold my coins. Hence, every time I am asked for change, I either try to fish it out from the side slits or simply wait for it to come tumbling down as the cafeteria counter keeper waits patiently. After a few days of this repeated episode, he has become conditioned to my new purse. I sadly still reminisce over my former coin zipper.