Novellas lie somewhere between a novel and a short story, since they are not long enough to be a novel and not short enough to be a short story. The term ‘novella’ is Italian for “little new thing” and is used to refer to a short tale in prose. Ruskin Bond’s first novella was, Time Stops at Shamli which took a long time to get published. When he started writing, Bond wrote short stories and essays for the need of a regular income but when he had the luxury of no financial pressures, he indulged in longer narratives such as a novella. When he showed The Blue Umbrella, to a friend, he suggested that Bond should write it as a children’s story, which is precisely what he had done. When Bond pointed that out to his friend, he said, “It could be both things…” It is a story which could be read and appreciated by both children and adults which is also true of the children’s films made by Vishal Bhardwaj. Ruskin Bond outlined the process of creation of this novella, “The characters and the incidents first fell into place as I went along, without any attempt to invent a plot or point a moral. And yet it makes a point.”
The Blue
Umbrella The novella begins with Binya frantically calling her blue-grey cow,
“Neelu! Neelu!” and her companion, Gori, a white cow, both of whom were fond of
wandering off down to the stream or the pine forest. Her brother, Bijju who
used to help her otherwise, was busy studying for his exams. Binya, like her
creator and her adaptor was, a girl whose heart was in the mountains. The
nearest town which was five miles away scared her with its people and frenzy.
The story is set in a village in Garhwal, which like any other village was
inhabited by people who were innocent, had simple needs and knew each other. It
was a village where a child’s age was remembered by referring to the snow that
fell in that particular year, for instance, Binya’s mother pointed out that she
was born in the year when the snow had reached the windows. They had terraced
fields where they grew potatoes, beans, maize etc. Binya wore a leopard’s claw
around her neck to ward off evil and for good luck, which shows the rich
culture and strong beliefs of the people of Garhwal.
While
looking for her cow, she came across a group of picnickers from the plains. She
tried to understand their clothes and accents, but before long, her gaze falls
on a beautiful, frilly, blue umbrella, “The umbrella was like a flower, a great
blue flower that had sprung up on the dry brown hillside” (105). When the
holidaymakers see her, they assume that she is a poor and filthy village girl
and offer her something to eat. This encounter is revelatory of the
condescending nature of city dwellers when they come into contact with those
from small towns and villages. Ruskin Bond satirises this equation of
simplicity with poverty and ignorance. One of the picnickers mistakes her
leopard’s claw as tiger’s claw and in the attempt to parade his understanding
of the region says, “These people wear them to keep away evil spirits.” Instead
of making an attempt to understand the culture, customs and folklore of
Garhwal, this patronising tourist appropriates the voice of Binya and the
community to which she belongs. They want to buy Binya’s pendant for 2-3 rupees
since, “she’s sure to need the money” (106) but Binya wants the blue umbrella.
The bargain is made and Binya acquires the umbrella, “That patch of sky blue
silk could always be seen on the hillside” (107). There is a single tea shop on
the Tehri road and it was owned by Ram Bharosa. He is a selfish and insensitive
man who takes the most prized possession of the children when they cannot pay
him back for the sweets and cookies that they have bought from his shop. He is
envious of Binya because of her blue umbrella. He tries to convince her that it
was for the memsahibs and would not be of any use against the sun or rain.
Binya knew that, “it was a beautiful plaything. And that was exactly why she
had fallen in love with it.” She was almost on the verge of losing her blue
umbrella because of a strong gust of wind. The umbrella fell of the cliff and
got stuck in a cherry tree. Binya, without any concern for her own life climbed
down the cliff to retrieve her umbrella, “She looked down, and it was only then
that she felt afraid. She was right over the chasm, balanced precariously about
eighty feet above the boulder-strewn stream (110). “ Everyone in the village
was jealous of Binya because of her blue umbrella. The schoolmaster’s wife
believed that she being a “second class B A” had a better claim on the umbrella
than a poor farmer’s daughter. Binya generously offered the umbrella to those
who looked unhappy while the adults around her either envied her or hoped and prayed
that her umbrella would shrivel in the sun or collapse in a breeze or get
destroyed by lightning. As against the mean envy of the adults, the children
were all praises for the umbrella. Ruskin Bond portrays the beauty and terror
of life in the mountains very vividly. His stories describe his love for the
hills and small towns of India. In Time Stops at Shamli, he says, “Shamli is a
small station at the foot of the Shivalik hills and the Shivaliks lie at the
foot of the Himalayas, which in turn lie at the feet of God” (1). The rain
turns the hills lush green, ferns and lilies spring up everywhere, the mist
floats up the valley, but the rain also brings leeches and field rats to the
chagrin of villagers like Binya’s mother whose stored grains are spoiled by the
rats. The rain also brings venomous snakes and Binya has to use her umbrella to
defend herself. Ram Bharosa is the richest man in the village and he
desperately wants to possess the blue umbrella. He tells Rajaram, a young boy
who runs small errands for him that wanting and not owning the blue umbrella is
like a sickness. He is almost poetic in his desire for the blue umbrella, “Of
what use is a poppy in a cornfield?
Of what use is a rainbow? ... I too have a soul. I want the umbrella, because I want its beauty to be mine!” (115) This shows that the umbrella is a metaphor of art/beauty/ human desires and dreams which sometimes make an individual think and behave in an irrational way. Rajaram offers to get him the umbrella for a paltry sum of three rupees. He finds his chance when Binya is looking for porcupine quills but he is caught by Binya and her brother Bijju. Ram Bharosa is ostracised as soon as the people of the village discover that he has tried to steal the umbrella. They stop buying supplies from his shop and walk an extra mile to the Tehri bus stand for their daily essentials. The same people who themselves desired the umbrella and dreamt of possessing it, assume a moral high ground because Ram Bharosa did what they had wished to do. He sits alone in his hut, eagerly waiting for people to come and talk to him, “He wishes he had never set eyes on it. Because of the umbrella, he had suffered the tortures of greed, the despair of loneliness”, (118). His pitiable condition makes Binya wonder whether she cared more for the umbrella than necessary. It is Binya who goes to his shop to buy sweets and when Ram Bharosa goes to get them, he realises, that Binya has left her umbrella at the counter. The umbrella is finally in his possession; he cannot hold on to it and keep it for the rest of his life. He realised that he is never in the sun or in the rain and the umbrella is useless for him. He runs after Binya to give the umbrella back to her, “In that moment it belonged to both of them.” She left the umbrella with him because, “an umbrella isn’t everything” and when she went down the road, “there was nothing between her and the bright, blue sky.” Ram Bharosa regains the trust he has lost. People start frequenting his shop where the umbrella lies for anyone and everyone to borrow. He tells the villagers that it is a gift from Binya. Ram Bharosa finds a bear’s claw, and takes it to a silversmith to get a locket made for Binya. Ruskin Bond portrays the manner in which human beings are enslaved by their desire to own and possess. Both Binya and Ram Bharosa are liberated from that desire by making the umbrella available to everyone. It is the mark of a great writer to make us understand human frailties and empathise with all his characters. He creates a world where there is a very thin line that divides the sensibility of adults from that of children. An adult could have childish desires and a child could be kinder and wiser than an adult. In most of his narratives one can see, feel and hear the mountains.
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