Umbrellas

In the state I grew up in India it rains a lot. The month of June heralds the beginning of the rainy season and during this time it rains incessantly. This rain is known as the monsoons. The rainy season lasts for two months or so

Umbrellas are a necessity during this time. Umbrellas are needed during the rest of the year also because it gives protection from the scorching rays of the sun. Two days ago I saw a dress by the brand Dollcake. It is a brand for little girls dresses. The picture has an exquisitely dressed young girl wearing a long frilly black dress and holding a black umbrella with cream lace. To me, it looked like an apparition. The umbrella had lace and frill on it and matched the dress. That got me thinking of umbrellas. Recently I bought a pink umbrella from the store Old Navy. Before that I had a green umbrella with white polka dots that I bought from an airport. Recently I saw a red and black Hello Kitty umbrella in the store Hobby Lobby. However I did not buy it. In my hometown in India since it rains continuously for two months and since umbrellas are essential there are stores where only umbrellas are sold. Essential difference in how umbrellas are sold in Iowa and Kerala--In Iowa I have found umbrellas in stores along with tons of other merchandise. But in the city I grew up in there are stores that only sell umbrellas. My mother loved foldable small umbrellas that fit into her handbag. My grandfather had a long black umbrella with a curved handle that looked so aristocratic and could not be folded. My father would just pick any of the numerous umbrellas in our home and did not have a designated umbrella. Imagine going umbrella shopping. We go to the umbrella store and step into umbrella paradise. Black umbrellas. Colorful umbrellas. Umbrellas with frills on the edge. Umbrellas that can be folded. Umbrellas that cannot be folded. We pick an umbrella, open it and close it and see how easy it is to open and close. We see how big it is. We look at the quality of the umbrella fabric. We walk around with the umbrella open and resting on our shoulder inside the store. That is how you check out an umbrella while umbrella shopping. On TV there are umbrella commercials. I still remember the lines of an umbrella commercial I saw on TV in my childhood. Mazha mazha kuda kuda St George kudakal! (Malayalam words) Rain Rain Umbrella Umbrella St. George umbrellas! (English Translation) In the US I have not seen an umbrella commercial. In addition, in Kerala there are people who specialize in fixing umbrellas or repairing umbrellas. Sometimes the fabric has a tear or one of the the metal ribs is broken or the handle is not working or it does not open or close. Here in the US I have not seen many repair shops. I guess it is due to the fact that it is a consumerist culture. If something does not work it is thrown away and a new one is bought. I have seen kiosks that fix cell phones in the mall though. Since monsoon is the reason I am used to umbrellas here is some info about monsoon from Wikipedia. (Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is also sometimes used to describe locally heavy but short-term rains. Monsoons are most often associated with the Indian Ocean. The southwest monsoon is generally expected to begin around the beginning of June and fade away by the end of September. Please google monsoon and read up about this weather phenomenon in wikipedia if interested.