Umbrella

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When you are 3 years old, lot of things done are first time in your life. It was no different for little Chintu. He was over excited opening the umbrella of his late grandpa. The old umbrella was as long as himself. It was not like the new age umbrellas. There was no button to open it. An accurate push up of the hollow cylinder, circling the center rod, opened the wide black umbrella. After lot of help from granny, Chintu opened it. He ran all over the house to celebrate this.

The umbrella was used by grandpa as a walking stick. He carried it with pride to the local market and used it as a shade from sun and rain. Age had taken toll over the umbrella. There were holes in the cloth that made the shade. Cockroaches had made a quick meal of it in the attic, after grandpa's death.

The umbrella was discovered when emptying the house. Chintu would move to a new home in a week. As part of the shifting efforts, the attic was cleaned and hence Chintu experienced the joy. It was his new toy.

Chintu's dad decided that the umbrella was another scrap which has to be thrown. Many of Chintu's old toys were not to be taken to the new house. But Chintu protested the scrapping of his new toy. Dad vetoed and kept the umbrella outside the house as a scrap.

Chintu was sad but like most 3 year olds, he quickly forgot and adopted to play with his regular toys.

Next day, as Chintu's family was moving to the new home in their car, the kid observed a surprising thing on the pavement. It was raining. A small slum kid was sitting on the pavement with a street dog under the old umbrella, hence not getting wet. Chintu showed this to his granny. Both smiled at each other as their car moved on.