In exchange for her lucky leopard's claw pendant, Binya acquires a beautiful blue umbrella that makes her the envy of everyone in the village, especially Ram Bharosa, the shopkeeper. It is the prettiest umbrella in the whole village and she carries it everywhere she goes.
The Blue Umbrella is a short and humorous novella set in the hills of Garhwal. Written in simple yet witty language, it captures life in a village - where ordinary characters become heroic, and others find opportunities to redeem themselves.
The Blue Umbrella is a short fiction written by Ruskin Bond
& published by Rupa Publications. The author’s first novel, The Room on the
Roof, written when he was 17, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in
1957. Since then he has written several novellas, essays, poems &
children’s books. He has also written over 500 short stories & articles
that have appeared in a number of magazines & anthologies. He received the
Sahitya Akademi Award in 1993 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra, a collection
of short stories & the Padma Shri in 1999.
Our protagonist of the story is Binyadevi or Binya as she is
called by everyone from her village. She lives a simple life with her mother
& elder brother Vijay or Bijju. One fine day she acquires a beautiful
bright blue umbrella from some picnickers who came at the hills of Garhwal in
exchange of her lucky leopard’s claw necklace. The story beautifully revolves
around how she gets attached to the umbrella while a shopkeeper named Ram
Bharosa eyed on it & plans to acquire it somehow. Get the book here to know
whether his plans succeed or not,
Ruskin Bond is one of my favorite author of all time. His
simplicity in writing the stories just sweep me away. I’m so glad I picked up
this small book which refreshed my mind totally. The characters have been
etched as ordinary as one can get & that’s what makes Bond’s writing mesmerizing.
The language, cover & title, everything is on point. A must have.
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