Ruskin Bond (b. 1934) is an Indian author of children’s books. He did his schooling from Bishop Cotton School in Shimla. After completing his high school education, he went to United Kingdom for further studies. While in UK, and still only 17 years old, he began to write his first novel The Room on the Roof. Published in the year 1956, the novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Bond used the advance from the novel to pay for his sea voyage back to India, where he settled down in Dehradun. Some of his most acclaimed works include Time Stops at Shamli (1989), The Ruskin Bond Children’s Omnibus (1995), Crazy Times with Uncle Ken (2011) and Tigers for Dinner: Tall Tales by Jim Corbett ’s Khansama (2013). In 1992, he won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his collection of essays Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra (1991). Today, he is the most famous author in India and lives in Landour, Mussoorie.
Binya’s Blue Umbrella is an extract from Bond’s novel The Blue Umbrella (1980). Most of Bond’s works is set in the mountains. He is inspired by the beauty and innocence of the mountain life, a reason why he decided to settle down first in Dehradun and later in Landour. Bond weaves his stories around the simplest of things in life. In 2005, the Indian film-maker, Vishal Bhardwaj, adapted The Blue Umbrella into a film. It won the National Film Award for Best Children’s Film in 2007.
