The Blue Umbrella  (English, Paperback, Bond Ruskin)

The Blue Umbrella is a stirring novel about the simple yet generous minds of children by the author Ruskin Bond.

Summary Of The book

The Blue Umbrella is a novel set in the mountainous Gharwal region. The story is about a little girl called Binya, who on falling upon a group of picnickers, is enchanted by a beautiful blue umbrella belonging to one of them. Incidentally, one of the ladies in the group takes a liking to Binya’s leopard claw necklace and offers to buy it from her. When Binya refuses, she is asked to choose anything that she would like in return for it and she chooses the blue umbrella. After much pleading, the lady consents to her wish and Binya becomes the proud owner of the umbrella.

But, what happens when the village shopkeeper sets his eyes on the very same umbrella and decides to have it for himself? Binya’s precious umbrella becomes the source of envy to him and he tries his utmost to get it from her. What follows is a story of greed, ignominy and kindness.

The book was adapted into a movie called The Blue Umbrella in 2005 and which was later awarded the National Film Award for Best Children’s Film.

About Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond is a famous Indian writer, known especially for his children’s fiction. He has authored more than 300 stories, essays and novels.

His other novels are A Flight of Pigeons, Vagrants in the Valley, Angry River, The India I Love and Roads to Mussoorie. Some of his short story collections are A Town Called Dehra, The Night Train at Deoli and Tigers Forever.

He was born in 1934 in Kasauli and spent the major part of his childhood in Jamnagar, Shimla and Dehradun. He went to Bishop Cotton School in Shimla and graduated from there with numerous literary awards. Following this, he went to England and began work on his first novel, The Room on the Roof, which won him the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. He returned to India and worked as a journalist for some time before moving to Mussoorie permanently. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 and was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri in 1999. He has also authored two autobiographies namely Scenes from A Writer’s Life and Rain in the Mountains. A Flight of Pigeons and his short story Susanna’s Seven Husbands were also adapted into movies called Junoon and 7 Khoon Maaf respectively.