From buckets to pillow covers: Why ‘No-Bag Day’ is becoming a campus trend at IITs, IIMs

At campuses where laptops, case studies and presentations are part of everyday life, students are finding an unusual way to break the routine — by leaving their bags behind.

The “No-Bag Day” trend is finding its way onto Indian higher-education campuses, with students at IIT Bombay and IIM Lucknow recently turning an ordinary classroom day into a playful exercise in creativity and camaraderie.

The concept is simple: conventional backpacks and laptop bags are off limits, while students can use almost anything else to carry their belongings — from buckets, drawers and umbrellas to pressure cookers, pillow covers, clothes hangers and even bicycles.

At IIT Bombay, students marked their last lecture in April with a No-Bag Day. A video from the event showed students arriving with buckets, chairs, cardboard boxes, hangers, umbrellas and even a bicycle to carry their classroom essentials. The activity also became a light-hearted way to mark their final lecture.

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At IIM Lucknow, students from Section F of the PGP batch recently organised a student-led No-Bag Day. The institute clarified that it was not an official activity, but an attempt by students to step away from the routine of classes, case studies, presentations and deadlines.

For the students, the exercise was less about the unusual objects and more about questioning an everyday habit. “A bag is such an ordinary part of student life that we rarely question it,” PGP students Ashwin Narayan and Srivatsh Agarwal said, describing the activity as a small experiment in creativity.

The duo said the exercise also had a larger message: what began as a playful experiment showed how creativity can emerge when familiar routines are disrupted, and students are forced to approach everyday objects differently.

The alternatives used by students included drawers, umbrellas, buckets, cardboard boxes, laundry bags, pillow covers, bed tables, wheelchairs and kettles.

From school spirit activity to campus culture

The format itself is not new. Internationally, “Anything But a Bag Day” is often organised as a school or campus spirit activity, encouraging students to carry their belongings in unconventional objects.

In India, the idea has increasingly appeared on college campuses, with videos of students taking part often gaining traction on social media. One of the earlier widely reported examples was at Chennai’s Women’s Christian College in 2023, where students carried their belongings in pressure cookers, laundry baskets, buckets, cardboard boxes and pillow covers.

Part of the appeal lies in its simplicity. No elaborate arrangements or expensive equipment are required — just one rule: leave the conventional bag at home.

Neeti Nigam leads the education department at indianexpress.com. She joined the Indian Express in 2015 and has set up the education and job sections in the online department. She covers schools and higher education, entrance and board exams, study abroad, civil services and other career-related news. Prior to that, she worked as a lifestyle and entertainment journalist in The Pioneer newspaper's magazine division. Besides working in the in-flight Air India (Namaskaar) magazine, she was part of the launch team of Indian Railways on-board magazine Rail Bandhu. She has also worked as a city reporter covering north Delhi in Hindustan Times. In 2012, she covered the MCD elections. You can write to her at neeti.nigam@indianexpress.com ... Read More