‘The Umbrella was like a flower, a great blue flower that had sprung up on the dry brown hillside.'

In exchange for her lucky leopard's claw pendant, Binya acquires a beautiful blue umbrella that makes her the envy of everyone in her village, especially Ram Bharosa, the shop-keeper. Ruskin Bond's short and humorous novella, set in the picturesque hills of Garhwal, perfectly captures life in a village, where both heroism and redemption can be found.