The Blue Umbrella

For the film, see The Blue Umbrella (film). For the unrelated Pixar short film, see The Blue Umbrella (2013 film).

The Blue Umbrella is a 1980 Indian novel written by Ruskin Bond. 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. 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. This story appeared in Bond's collection of short stories, Children's Omnibus.

Overview

The story is set in a small village of Himachal Pradesh, where a little girl, Binya, trades her old leopard claw necklace for a pretty, frilly blue umbrella. In a village where the richest man is the shopkeeper (Ram Bharosa) who keeps an old ruined shop and sells warm Coca Cola bottles due to no refrigerator, an umbrella is a precious thing to have. The people in the village become very fond of her umbrella. Soon the shopkeeper becomes envious of the umbrella and tries to buy it from Binya but she refuses.

As time passes by, Ram Bharosa's desire to get the umbrella also increases. The schools get closed due to the arrival of the monsoon and Ram Bharosa employs a boy from the next village named Rajaram to work at the shop. When Rajaram comes to know about his master's desire to own the umbrella, he offers to steal it for him. The shopkeeper unable to gain control on his craving, accepts it. Rajaram makes an attempt to steal the umbrella but fails and on being caught, he gives Ram Bharosa's name. Now everyone stopped coming to Ram Bharosa's shop. However, Binya realizes that her mistake and that she shouldn't have shown off her umbrella for now, due to it, Ram Bharosa's was suffering. In the end, Binya gives the umbrella to Ram Bharosa, who returns her favor in future by gifting her a necklace with a bear's claw.