“Sab Maya hai….”

While going through IndiaUncut a few days back, I came across an important nugget of information.

Apparently, ALL of Mayavati’s statues depict her carrying a handbag!!

Which made me wonder, is there any other accessory which was made famous through a statue? Well, we had Mahatma Gandhi with his trademark walking stick, we have Ambedkar holding his books close (was it the first draft of the Constitution?), or we have the basic model where the statue stands with one hand pointing ahead. But a personal accessory like a handbag is rare (as rare as the woman herself). One can almost visualize her naysayer getting a solid whack with that feminine weapon of destruction (Ha Ha !! I can so picture her doing that!! ) . Maybe that’s why the inherent need to make sure her statues display her strength

Anyhow, point of the matter is, I googled a bit for her statues(I’d heard there are roughly sixty statues of herself that she commissioned to be made…..in case we wonder why lakhs of people in UP die of famine or drought!!)) and found these :-

Mayavati - One...Errr..No comments

Mayavati - Two....that shalwar looks almost real!!

Mayavati - three....Is she really sticking her neck out??

Mayavati - four.....with, who else?!!!

Mayavati - five...........yet again!

Mayavati - six.......this is deceptive!! she isn't that slim!!

Mayavati - seven.....and many more to come!!!

Well, she did carry the same handbag in most (all?) of her statues.

Which made me think….does she really own such a handbag??

And so began my quest for Mayavati’s public appearances. I went through a zillion images of her , searched high and low….and came up with these :-

No handbag....but do check out those feet!!

No handbag....but a snazzy haircut's in place

No handbag....she really should stop wearing satin!!!

No handbag......who'd want to shoot her?? Oh , am sorry!! Didn't mean to point at you

No handbag.....am most disappointed

It seemed so futile, here I was, sifting through a hundred images and yet, I was unable to locate the source of inspiration of that bronze handbag!! The BF thinks, no make that believes, that I’ve gone crazy (the heat’s got to me, he says). Why else would a sane person spend the whole of Saturday searching the net obsessively for a handbag??

But I’d come this far…no point in turning back empty handed. So I plodded on….skimmed though a few more google pages. There, hidden between some random profile snaps of hers, I found it!! Yay!!!

My hard work finally paid off.

See for yourself :-

The Handbag!!!

Ummmm…don’t ask me what that guy is doing at her feet. Your guess is as good as mine.

But do notice that tan handbag of her’s. Now, isn’t that the same one which features in her statues??

I was so charged up with this find, that I hunted for some more close-up shots :-

There she comes!!

There it is!!! Finally!!

And now since its 12:45 in the night , AND, I’ve achieved the goal of locating that bag (how shallow is my life !!) I guess I better pop-off to sleep.

G’night folks .

Yaaawwwwwnnnnnnn.

Edited to add :-

A latest appearance of the famed handbag can be seen here. I wanted to just copy the image and paste it here but IBN had other thoughts.

By the way, doesn’t she look positively vile wielding that bag? Almost as if she’s gonna knock your head off with one powerful swing! Shudder!!!