Who moved my suitcase?
A Booker Prize winner's lost luggage is a tale that will resonate with flyers around the world
The smile on Banu Mushtaq's face as she held up her International Booker Prize trophy was lovely, and so was her sari. Except, it wasn't the one she had planned to wear. In a tale that will touch readers no less than the ones she has written, her suitcase was lost as she flew to London – along with essential medicines and the silk sari she had chosen for the prize ceremony. The more we travel the greater the odds of finding ourselves in this situation, arriving at our destination without everything we had packed to match it. What to do then? Buy, beg, borrow, don't steal.
Not everyone simply moves on, though. A techbro mad at an airline losing his girlfriend's luggage has set up LuggageLosers.com. It scrapes internet chatter 24/7 to publish live lost luggage data, which airlines don't publish. Bad news for us? Indian airlines regularly feature at the top of this global ranking. The zen types say, every trial is an opportunity. If you have arrived in a strange land without your belongings, without the comfort and confidence that comes from those, it's time to start finding out who you really are. Of course, for non-zen types, such advice turns unease into a throbbing headache. They have to restrain themselves from violence.
What about the lost luggage itself though? Sometimes it is never reunited with its parents but finds new ones at 'unclaimed baggage' vents. Airlines and airports seem to find this setup quite satisfactory. As imagery from baggage handling across the world shows, treating our luggage with respect isn't a priority at all. This is why many travellers have changed their packing habits altogether. What doesn't suffice for others for five days, they can travel to five countries with. Their carry-on packing is a mastery of art, physics and chemistry. Now, it's fingers crossed that Banu's Booker trophy makes it safely to India, with her.
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This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
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