The Girl With An Umbrella

All this umbrella issue started when I was in STD I. Now you may ask why I didn’t have an umbrella when in kindergarten.
When I was in LKG my dad dropped and picked me up at school every day. He is someone who carries and uses umbrella all the year round. Mostly he carried me in his arms, under his black umbrella. I studied UKG in a different city where rain was scarce. Also, I travelled to and from the school in an auto rickshaw that was fully packed with a dozen other students, their huge bags and lunch kits. There was no room for an extra umbrella. So we go back to where we started.

All this umbrella issue started when I was in STD I. I was back in my old city and was very excited to go back to my old school.  It was a chore to buy new school bag, pencil box, a pack of Nataraj pencils (with free sharpener and eraser along with the pack), water bottle, Tiffin box, lunch kit etc. along with new books, brown covering paper, name slip etc. for the new academic year. This time, along with the basic amenities, I also got a new Umbrella. A stick umbrella for kids, in bright rainbow colours, covering almost 3/4^th of my height, with a yellow whistle (that makes sharp noise) attached to the red handle and a yellow knob at the other end. How I used to love that umbrella! It was just an ordinary umbrella to me until one particular day.
Before explaining that, I should give you an introduction. I lived in the top floor of an apartment quarters back then. The apartment building was a few hundred metres further away from the road. Two of my neighbours (siblings) and I studied in the same school and travelled in the same van to and from school every day. One of them, Abitha, was my classmate and best friend then. Her sister, Aswathi, was four years elder to us and we looked up to her. She was our senior in school, always had the best of gossips, she was the walking encyclopaedia of all the latest film songs/stories and her little tricks never failed to amaze us. The driver dropped us near the gate and we walked back to our respective homes (That’s a lie. In most of the cases, we directly went to either their home or mine so as to not break the continuity of our gossip sessions or games we were playing from inside the van).
Anyway, it was just another day when everyone and everything around was soaked in the monsoon rain. Abitha and I were about to unwrap a chocolate we got on our classmate’s birthday. That’s when Aswathi told us she would show something unbelievable and amazing if we gave her our chocolate. Didn’t I tell you before that she was our hero and role model? So we reluctantly gave her the chocolate, hoping to learn a new trick that day. After slowly unwrapping the chocolate and savouring its taste (this seemed like an eternity to me) she made us hold her school bag and lunch kit, and asked us to stand a little farther from her. The rain was still dripping. She held her umbrella tightly horizontally and whirled it with all her might...and… SWOOOOOSH and BAAAMMM!!!!!! 

 The top of the umbrella went upside down! That did amaze us a lot. Maybe because we were too small, or maybe because we didn’t get the knack, Abitha and I couldn’t get our umbrellas upside down. Abitha tried so hard till she finally stumbled and fell on the gravel. After much begging and pleading Aswathi agreed to teach us the trick if and only if we carried her school bag and lunch kit across the flight of stairs for a week. (I know, she’s such an opportunist. She could make a great boss or politician one day). With Aswathi’s expertise and our constant practice, we finally mastered the talent of tumbling an umbrella top and harvesting rain water in it. After weeks of continuous inverting, the umbrellas automatically got inverted in the slightest wind even without making any efforts! Let’s say...those umbrellas had a shorter lifespan than monsoon! RIP. But I still have the remnants of my rainbow coloured umbrella, at home.

My second umbrella happened when I was in STD II. A bright red one with floral patterns on it and a red whistle attached to it. (I never really understood the whistle part. Back then, all kids’ umbrellas had whistle with them. Is it the same pattern even now?) This umbrella was gifted to me by grandma’s youngest sister for being a good girl and not burning her house down while I stayed with them during summer vacation (and also because she got free umbrella from office). Anyway, I loved this umbrella a lot too. Even before the school reopened, I used to flaunt and show off this umbrella in front of Abitha and Aswathi during our playtime. As you know, the school mostly reopens with the monsoon rain. So for the first week I had to use umbrella on almost every day. Then there wasn’t rain for a few days. Again the rain started pouring heavily and that’s when I started looking for my lovely red umbrella with floral patterns and whistle attached to it. I couldn’t find it at home or in school. I tried hiding this from my parents, but obviously, they found out within a few days.

That was the end of it all. I never had another umbrella on my own since then. Of course my parents forced me to take another umbrella but I was afraid of losing it again. Now you may ask why I didn’t have this problem when I was in STD I. That’s because, our van driver during that time was a wonderful man. He always made sure we had our bags, kits and umbrellas with us before leaving school. Next year, the driver changed and so did the fate of my umbrella. But thanks to my wonderful, liberal, helping friends, I always had a place under their umbrellas.

Did I not have any other umbrella in my life other than these two? Yes, I did. I got an umbrella as prize for winning a contest conducted by a leading newspaper in Malayalam. A three-fold black umbrella with silver coating inside for UV protection. That happened when I was in STD VII, perhaps. Mom was already furious at me for not using umbrella. So she ordered me to use this umbrella and she placed it inside my bag. After some 4 months, mom was shocked to see that umbrella in my bag, still unused, and full of tiny holes formed on them. That’s when we realized, umbrellas with silver coating form holes when unopened for a long time! With an umbrella in bag, I still scrooched under other people’s umbrellas.

Even though I haven’t had an umbrella on my own, I’ve lost a couple of other umbrellas too. One I left it in the seat of an auto rickshaw, another one in the train. At least, that’s all I remember, even though my family claims I’ve lost more.

A couple of years back I saw the advertisement of a famous umbrella mart. They guaranteed the umbrella won’t get inverted even in the strongest winds. I felt sorry for the present day kids. With such wind-resistant umbrellas in market, they would never be able to enjoy and have fun with inverting umbrellas, collecting water on top of it and splashing it on their friends…

Last week I was sharing my umbrella story with a friend and she too shared her dreadful experience with umbrellas. It’s happy to know I’m not the only one who never used umbrellas.

The title of this post is in a very literal sense. The girl with AN umbrella.

An umbrella that was once bright and rainbow coloured, now the colours faded and hardly recognizable, covering almost 1/4^th of my current height, with a yellow whistle (that doesn’t make noise anymore) attached to its red handle, and the yellow knob on the other end is missing. This is very contrary to my dad who has an umbrella in his bag all the time, or some of my relatives who keeps umbrella as a safety measure (to shoo away stray dogs or to hit burglars on head, just a precaution).

So… What’s your umbrella story? :D