Book Review #18 The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

 Book Review on The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

A Book Review by Ridlab Classics on "The Blue Umbrella" written by  Ruskin Bond.

written by Ranit Banerjee.

"The umbrella is like a flower, a great blue flower that had sprung up on the dry brown hillside."❤️

The Blue Umbrella is a short novella written by Ruskin Bond. He wrote his first novel The Room on the Roof at the age of 17 and recieved prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Award for that.

The narrative of the story carried us to the valleys of Himalaya.

The protagonist of the story Binyadevi or Binya lives a simple life with her mother and her elder brother Vijjay or Bijju. One day she saw a beautiful blue umbrella when some picnickers came at the hills of Garhwal. She wanted it so badly that she was willing to exchange it for her lucky leopard's claw pendant. No one in the village had such a fine umbrella and Binya carried it everywhere with herself. The story beauitfully revolves around how she get attached with that umbrella and how a old shopkeeper Ram Bharosa have decided that by some means he must own the blue umbrella.

The story ends by giving some beautiful social and personal messages to think about ourselves once again. The short and humorous novella captures life in a hill village of Garhwal- where ordinary chatacters become heroic, and others find opportunities to redeem themselves.

The simplicity in writing, the characters have been etched as ordinary as one can get and that's what makes Bond's writing mesmerizing.

It is a great book as a gift to any child. Additionally you can finish it reading within a hour. So what are you waiting for?