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Binya had already left the shop

when Ram Bharosa saw the closed
umbrella lying on his counter. There
it was, the blue umbrella he had
always wanted, within his grasp at
last! He had only to hide it at the
back of his shop, and no one would
know that he had it, no one could

prove that Binya had left it behind.

He stretched out his trembling, bony
hand, and took the umbrella by the
handle. He pressed it open. He stood
beneath it, in the dark shadows of
his shop, where no sun or rain could

ever touch it.

‘But I’m never in the sun or in the rain,’ he said aloud. ‘Of what use is an umbrella to me?’

And he hurried outside and ran after Binya.

‘Binya, Binya!’ he shouted. ‘Binya, you’ve left your umbrella behind!’ He wasn’t used to
running, but he caught up with her, held out the umbrella, saying, ‘you forgot it—the
umbrella!’ In that moment it belonged to both of them.

But Binya didn’t take the umbrella. She shook her head and said,

‘You keep it. I don’t need it anymore.’ Do you think Just a Minute!
Ram Bharosa
‘But it’s such a pretty umbrella!’ protested Ram Bharosa. ‘it’s the will hide the

best umbrella in the village.’ umbrella?

‘I know,’ said Binya. ‘But an umbrella isn’t everything.’

And she left the old man holding the umbrella, and went
tripping: walking, running, or tripping down the road, and there was nothing between her
dancing with quick light steps
and the bright blue sky.
—Ruskin Bond

About the Author
Ruskin Bond (b 1934) is an Indian author of British descent. He lives with his adopted family in Landour, in Mussoorie, India.
The Indian Council for Child Education has recognised his role in the growth of children’s literature in India. He got the Sahitya
Academy Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra, which contains fourteen stories that are semi-autobiographical in
nature. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014.

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