The Blue Umbrella

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The Blue Umbrella is a 1980 Indian novel written by Ruskin Bond.^[1] It was adapted into 2005 Hindi film by the same name, directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, which later won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film.^[2][3] In 2012, the novel was adapted into a comic by Amar Chitra Katha publications, titled, The Blue Umbrella – Stories by Ruskin Bond, and included another story, Angry River.^[4] This story appeared in Bond's collection of short stories, Children's Omnibus.

Summary[]

In the village of Garhwal lives a girl named Binya.

In the village, Ram Bharosa keeps an old shop and sells Coca-Cola with no ice, tea, curd and sweets. One day, Binya receives a beautiful blue umbrella by some foreigners in exchange for her leopard claw pendant. Soon, the shopkeeper becomes jealous of the umbrella and tries to buy it from Binya by claiming, "This is a fancy umbrella which small girls should not have", but Binya refuses. As time passes, Ram's jealousy of the umbrella turns into an obsession. He employs a boy named Rajaram from the next village to work at the shop. When Rajaram learns of his boss' desire to own the umbrella, he makes an attempt to steal it but fails and is caught. Rajaram then gives up Ram's name, causing his shop to be boycotted. Ram is now remorseful of his actions and miserable. Binya realizes her showing off the blue umbrella indirectly led to Ram's suffering. In the end, Binya willingly gives the umbrella to Ram, who in turn gifts her a bear claw pendant.

References[]