I had recently watched a film which was based on a short story by Ruskin Bond called The Blue Umbrella. The story revolved around an eight to ten year old girl who lives in an Indian village and acquires a blue umbrella from Japanese visitors. The umbrella looked beautiful and I’m sure like the kimono is loved, by people, all over the world so is the umbrella.

Umbrellas are generally a necessary evil! Most of them look common place but have you ever imagined that you could make a style statement with your umbrella? They need not be those folded things that you put in your bag or hang near the door of your office or home because they are dripping. There are some umbrella makers that make the prettiest umbrellas that you could carry as proudly as your purse.

Chinese umbrellas are known for their lovely patterns of flowers, birds and landscapes. The earliest ones were made of silk and afterwards they were made of paper. The paper parasols were waxed with oil and wax so that it repelled water.

Some umbrella makers are these days making umbrellas to match your dress. You can now get umbrellas in many interesting colors.  No longer are umbrellas those commonplace black things that you have to carry.

Some interesting trivia about Umbrellas:

The hit single Umbrella which features hip-hop artist Jay-Z won Rihanna her first Grammy for Best Rap/Sung collaboration in 2007

There was a scene in the musical film Mary Poppins where Julie Andrews floats down with her umbrella to apply for the post of nanny at the Banks family.

According to Kersey’s dictionary (1708) an umbrella is a screen commonly used by women to keep off rain.

The word Umbrella is derived from the Latin word umbra, which means shade or shadow.

In UK, Australia and New Zealand Brolly is the slang word for umbrella.

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