The umbrella man

Certainly where I live, if you break an umbrella you throw it away. This is typical of our throw away society. You see the casually discarded umbrellas in litter bins (or not) particularly after a heavy storm, especially if it has been windy.

Well not here in India, in most towns you'll find an umbrella repair man on a street corner, ready to bring your shelter from the rain back to life. Typically he'll sit on the ground and have a sheet of assorted bits; springs, plastic bobbins, screws, rods, and wire. With deft use of a few simple tools he works his magic.

People drop off the broken umbrellas and return after a while to collect the repaired item. If you're lucky the colours of the parts will match. As I sit here typing, I can see a bright pink handle being attached to a blue canopy. I'm sure it will still keep the rain off and now with added.... um, colour!

Incidentally broken things are repaired more often here and you'll find repair shops for just about anything. I quite like that. I've always been a tinkerer myself, driving my wife nuts fixing things (junk?) I find. But sometimes these things are actually useful. Not always, but sometimes. Actually I have been known to fix umbrellas myself, so know that I'll always have a skill to fall back on, and India's not such a bad place to work.