ACCEPTANCE WITH GRACE: RUSKIN BOND’S 'THE BLUE UMBRELLA' AS A NOVELLA AND A FILM (Pages 19-26) by Dr. S. Umamaheswari Subramaniam in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

The Blue Umbrella is a novella written by Ruskin Bond. Vishal Bharadwaj has directed this novella into a movie, set in the picturesque region of Himachal Pradesh. It has won the National Film Award and Best Children’s Film Award in the year of 2007. The theme of story revolves around the protagonist Binya, a nine year old girl living in the Garhwal Mountain in Himalayas. The title is about acquiring a pretty blue umbrella from a tourist visiting Binya’s village, in exchange of her lucky leopard’s claw pendent. Everybody in the village is envious of Binya’s umbrella. But Ram Bharosa, a tea shop owner steals the umbrella. The village people turn against Ram Bharosa and name him the “Trusty Umbrella thief” and stop visiting his shop. Binya realises that the beauty and prettiness of the umbrella is the root cause for all the trouble and gifts the pretty umbrella to Ram Bharosa. Through this simple narrative, Ruskin Bond explicates themes of growing up, greed and envy, acceptance with grace, and the like. The film version effects some changes which enhance the dramatic elements. In this paper, I will attempt to compare the print and film versions of the work within the framework of a “growing up” narrative. Keywords: picturesque region of Himachal Pradesh, protagonist Binya, Garhwal Mountain in Himalayas, Trusty Umbrella thief, dramatic elements etc.