Chata hai jindagi ke liye

As monsoons are fast approaching, shops are already flooded with colourful umbreallas for all age groups. Every year lakhs of umbrellas are brought and thousands are lost at shops, in trains, rickshaws and every possible place.
Last week I watched a movie "Cheeni Kum" whose central character of the movie was essential the traditional black grandpa umbrella. Although the movie did not take into account a very important aspect of what finally happened to the umbrella, it once again stressed on the fact of how inseparable our bollywood is from the umbrella. Be it the evergreen song "Pyar hua ikraar hua hai" or "Main koi aisa geet gau" or numerous other songs....Its not just about the rain..its about being under one umbrella which romanticizes the entire scene..how the heroine runs frantically in the rains only to find shelter under our very own heroes umbrella.

And its not just the bollywood. Its something which I have always admired.
From childhood i had a secret admiration for umbreallas. As a child, i was always made to wear a raincoat that covered me head to heels. Few years later this too had a makeover and changed into windsheeter- a modfied version of raincoat essentially made for the little senior lot of the school who had started becoming fashion concious. However I was always jealous of the few elite classmates who would carry an umbrella.

After lot of crying and acting I got my first umbrella. It was big bright red one with small white balls placed at the ends of the umbrella strings which would prevent anyone from getting hurt. The top had a bright red mickey mouse cartoon on it which i am extremely fond of even today. I was now a part of the elite few in my school and did not waste any chance of showing it off even when it was sunny. I took extra care of that umbrella and used to neatly pack it in its plastic cover without fail. It had a special corner reserved for it in my house and even in school it used to be cautiously hung over the bench in front of me.

However my connection with the umbrella was short lived. Once, after the school bell rang we were all lined up to leave for the day when one of my PE teachers snatched my umbrella and went off to scare someone. I tried following him but he soon dissappeared and so did my umbrella. I went over to ask him for it the following day but all I got was "Sorry....i must have misplaced it somewhere".And it was gone...I never got it back.....I cried that day after the school. I find it very funny now when I look back at it because there are so many more important things that i have lost after ths incident and not shed a tear for it....But probably it just showed that how important small thing in life are.

In life we gain and loose a so many things. Some things do not affect our life in any way but some seem to leave an impression for ever.Things that seem so unimportant to others may play a very important role in your life. I have always believed in forgetting things that i have lost in life. However this loss though may seem so insignificant, is still not forgotten.

I have bought several umbrellas after that- red, blue, green- big and small, cheap and costly.. but this one has always been in my memories.
As every monsoon brings so much life with it...fresh green trees and fresh smell of the earth, as much as it brings to life the memories of my long lost umbrella.