Ruskin Bond is one of the most famous authors in the world. This document gives a brief yet deep summary of "The Blue Umbrella", a renowned short by the eminent author.
The Blue Umbrella is a beautiful open door to the serene yet chaotic life of the people of Garhwal.
The story begins with narration by the radiant Binya of her encounter with a bunch of holiday
makers from the pains. The woman in the group allows the girl to take her blue silk umbrella in
exchange for her beaded necklace with a leopard claw pendant. Binya popped it with her
everywhere she went; in the green mountainous hill side, a blue umbrella was always abloom. On a
sunny summery day, Binya dozed off in the shade of a tree and the umbrella flew away and went
down a cliff! She took much pain to retrieve her precious thing, precariously crawling a cherry tree
jutting at right angles to the chasm then since she couldn’t go back with it, letting it fall to the nettle
clump down beneath. It took her twenty minutes to seize her darling possession and come out
victoriously from the Urtica dioica thicket.
Everyone desired the umbrella, the adults watched Binya carrying it with envious eyes while
the children flagrantly admired it. But one man in town was swept graciously away by the beauty of
the blue parasol, he was Ram Bharosa. This old man was the richest person in town and he also
owned the land’s only shop. He tried hard to allay his unruly obsession but when the kid employed in
his shop, Rajaram offered to steal the umbrella for him for three rupees, he couldn’t resist. The
lovely Binya was searching for porcupine quills in the forest glade when Rajaram snatched her blue
blossom and ran down the hills. She chased after him with all her might and soon her brother Bijju
joined. Bijju dueled the thief while Binya saved her umbrella from flowing off in the river current.
Soon everyone knew of Ram Bharosa’s treachery and his shop stopped receiving customers. Even
though it was greed that led to his down fall Binya couldn’t help but feel guilty of her crime to a
simple thing too much that she forgot about other people. So one day she went to visit the shop and
bought a toffee and kept the umbrella on the counter. The old man ran outside to give it back to her
and she refused to have it choosing to skip back home with nothing between her and the bright blue
sky.
Ram Bharosa was a man who spent days without ever going outside but now that he had an
umbrella, he went out to greet the Sun and the rain once a while and because of it he looked
healthier. The blue umbrella was always open and kept outside the shop for anyone to use. Hence it
became the umbrella of the people. When winter came, a famished bear climbed Ram Bharosa’s
shop’s roof to feast on a ripening pumpkin growing in it. On its journey up to the cover, a claw fell
from its toe. Bharosa took it to a silversmith next day in the market and for ten rupees made into a
locket with a silver chain and claw pendant. Binya was hurrying past his house when Ram Bharosa
surprised her with the locket, he said, “You gave me the umbrella—i give you the claw! Come, let’s
see what it looks like on you.” He would never forget the smile she gave him when she left the shop.
Binya called out for her cows Neelu and Ghori while she walked back home. Her family was calling
out to her in the distance for there was a leopard on the loose and a song broke out of her lips to tell
them she was safe and near. The wind bustled by the child as the trees stood still to listen to her
music, the mountain was glad. The Blue Umbrella is thoroughly, utterly poetic and scrupulous in
narrating a gay story of repentance, wilderness and human goodness.
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