Author: Ruskin Bond
Review: Binya, a ten-year-old girl, is in search of her cows and a few people on a small picnic. When one of the women likes Binya’s tiger claw around her neck, Binya trades it for the woman’s beautiful blue silk umbrella.
She possesses something that the whole village couldn’t have. When people tried to get a similar thing, they failed. She became the envy of the village and the attention grabber of the village unknowingly. Unaware, Binya treated her silk umbrella as her lucky charm, as she was saved by that umbrella at times. The name of the umbrella just made the rounds and became an even more hot topic.
Even though it’s a simple story, the moral behind every scene is spectacular. It’s as if Ruskin Bond is saying that when you possess something hard to achieve, you will become the center of attention, either for good or bad. Because… a few villagers wanted Binya to lose her precious and lucky umbrella. Just like how they envy and curse a person who is more fortunate than them.
One of the villagers, who is respected by the whole village, is envious and tries to steal the umbrella of a ten-year-old girl and gets caught.
Ram Bharosa’s characters tell us that hidden greed and malicious intents will be ripped off of the public in as harsh a way as possible. But also, when he realizes his mistake and makes it up to Binya, he says that it’s never too late to change ways and become good.
Binya later realizes that possessions aren’t worth as much as the happiness of the ppl around her and that possessions are not everything.
This short story also has picture representation. This can be a good children’s story with deep meaning.
This one is for both children and adults. It’s quite a refreshing book from all the books I have read. The author is to the point, and there is a story. Which is rare.