Journey of an umbrella

Journey of an umbrella

It was the decision of the top authority to organize “mass physical display” comprising of about 5 thousands young students of various schools and colleges of the area to welcome a foreign dignitary on his visit to our country. The roads, streets, government buildings, shopping malls were already decorated with flags, buntings and colorful lights.  The trees along the main route of the dignitary from the airport to the guest house were decorated by hanging artificial fruits made of plastics. Not only this, technology was also used to hang real fruits such as oranges, and mangoes with the ordinary road side trees.

The chief instructor by holding a powerful megaphone was giving instructions to a huge group of young students who were lined up on the play ground. The weather was very much clear, warm, and sunny. The sun appeared to be very unfriendly and poor guys in the play ground were looking towards the sky to find any tiny piece of cloud but of no use.

The assistant chief instructor was wise enough to have an umbrella in his one hand to cover his semi bold head from the direct attack of the sun rays. His eyes were on his boss who was making announcements impatiently. His head, face and the shirt were almost wet by the sweat. The assistant chief instructor without loss of time rushed towards the chief instructor and generously offered his umbrella to the boss. He accepted this offer instantly and a sigh of relief appeared on his wet and red face. He was feeling little bit happy. In the mean time he saw the Director of Physical Education who was coming towards him in the field. Without losing a single moment, the Chief Instructor passed on his umbrella towards the Director to save him from the burning sun. Immediately the Director got hold of the umbrella as if it was his personal property.  He seemed to be happy to enjoy the blessings of the umbrella. He hardly enjoyed the cover of umbrella for about 10 minutes, a car stopped near the stage and the Secretary of Education stepped down from the car. It was part of the protocol for the Director to receive the Secretary of Education. As a first step he offered the same umbrella to the Secretary. He had very kindly taken over the charge of the umbrella. The Director of Education was briefing the Secretary and was enjoying the open sun whereas the Secretary was lucky enough to have the cover of the umbrella.  According to the Secretary, Minister of Education will be here very soon to view the latest performance of the young students. So everyone in the play ground was on high alert.

Finally after one hour, the minister of Education arrived. He was received by the Secretary and both were on the stage to view the glimpse of students’ performance. The assistant chief instructor was holding his position in the back of the students in open sun with a smile on his face when he saw his umbrella in the hand of the Minister of Education.  He was feeling proud as if not his umbrella, he was covering the honorable Minister from the sun heat.