The Brolly
Umbrella or "brolly”, aka “chhatri” or “chhaata” in Hindi, “kudai” or “kodai” in my mother tongue, Tamil and “kodé” in my native language, Kannada.
It is a man-made contraption originally contrapted to protect the user from sun and rain by holding it over the head, of course after unfurling it. When not on overhead protection duty, it is usually carried with its waterproof canopy furled and rolled tightly over the shaft. The shaft is of walking stick length with a curved or a carved handle at one end and a sharp point or spike at the opposite end. It serves to support the walker like a walking stick when the walker walks, often helping to give him a distinguished air. It can also be used like a lance to give poke with the spike to any attacker intent on attacking. Head-on collisions can be avoided by using the poke technique judiciously. Leaf pickers find the spike very useful to pick leaves with, one at a time, without bending.
The
umbrella is a very carefully constructed device. It has many other parts apart
from shaft and canopy. The canopy resembles an inverted bowl when unfurled. It
is made up of five or six triangular panels of waterproof fabric held together
by mild steel ribs radiating from a runner or a ring which moves up and down
the shaft. The ring supports long rods called stretchers, also made of mild
steel, which connect to the ribs of the canopy. The canopy opens up when the
runner is moved up the shaft and closes down when the runner is moved down towards
the handle. Usually a button is provided near the handle which, when depressed,
releases a spring and enables the canopy to spring open. Quite a surprise it
can turn out to be, when it opens up in front of the face unexpectedly and without
prior notice as it were, and very useful when encountering wild animals like tigers
and certain kinds of people face to face.
In some
newer models that we see people using these days, the shaft of the umbrella is
in two halves, with one half telescoping into the other. The canopy also folds
on to itself, so that the brolly can be folded down to half its length to go
into a handbag conveniently. But then, it cannot be used as a walking stick
except by persons of up to three feet height or those who don’t mind walking
bent at the knees. Walking on the knees can be a painful exercise and should
not be tried except under expert supervision.
Traditionally,
brollies came with their canopies made out of a uniform, near-black
charcoal-grey coloured waterproof fabric but nowadays, tradition has been
thrown to the winds and these things, now made out of modern lightweight
fabrics, come in many colours and all sorts of designs on them, from
multi-coloured checks to polka dots to what nots.
Clearing
cobwebs from out-of-reach corners, putting off remote light and fan switches
while lying in bed, tripping up unsuspecting persons with the curved handle, drawing
simple sketches or solving mathematical problems on soft muddy ground are some
of the other uses that the brolly, of the traditional design, that is, not the
folding type, can be put to.
Such is
the brolly!
It is a
useful man-made contraption that was originally contrapted to protect the user
from sun and rain ...
- © Shiva Kumar, 14/15 October, 2018
