About the book -In a small village called Garhwal lives a young girl Binya.
In the village, Ram Bharosa keeps an old shop and sells Coca-Cola with no ice, tea, curd and sweets. One day, Binya receives a beautiful blue umbrella by some foreigners in exchange for her leopard claw pendant. Soon, the shopkeeper becomes jealous of the umbrella and tries to buy it from Binya by claiming, "This is a fancy umbrella which small girls should not have", but Binya refuses. As time passes, Ram's jealousy of the umbrella turns into an obsession and he employs a boy named Rajaram from the next village to work at the shop. When Rajaram comes to know about his boss' desire to own the umbrella, he makes an attempt to steal it but fails and gets caught. Rajaram then gives up Ram's name, causing his shop to be boycotted. Ram is now remorseful of his actions and miserable. Binya realizes her showing off the blue umbrella indirectly led to Ram's suffering. In the end, Binya willingly gives the umbrella to Ram, who in turn gifts her a bear claw pendant.

About the author - Ruskin Bond (born 19 May 1934) is an Indian author of British descent. His father, Aubrey Alexander Bond was an officer of the Royal Air Force (RAF) posted in India. He studied in Bishop Cotton School in Shimla. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in the Dehra, his novel in English. Bond has written hundreds of short stories, essays, novels and books for children. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.^[1] He lives with his adopted family in Landour, Mussoorie.