The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond
"The thing of beauty is joy forever" says Keats. "The Blue Umbrella" by Ruskin Bond shows us how the beauty attracts everyone and how the attraction leads to obsession. The novel starts with Binya, a 10 year old girl from a village in Himalayas goes in search of her cows — Neelu and Gori in the valleys. There she sees some tourists, camped and a beautiful blue umbrella, kept open on the ground. It's so pretty and frilly, looks like a giant blue wild flower sprung up on the muddy ground. When one of the tourists asks for the leapord claw pendant she has worn in exchange for the blue umbrella, she readily accepts the deal and happily gets that from them. From the moment she gets that, she never closes that; wherever she goes she takes that along with her with great pride. The umbrella is neither big nor small for her. It covers her perfectly. The colour and its floral shape attracts everyone from the village. Ram Barosa, a teashop owner in the vil