Page 105 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Unit 12: Rupa Bajwa: Sari Shop—Characterisation and Plot Construction

a scolding from Mahajan for coming late has quite an impact on him. One day he unwittingly Notes
comes across some issues which he initially ignores and later his conscience prevents him from
ignoring and carrying on with his life. Things come to a head when lives across the spectrum of
society clash in a way which most of them would have never anticipated..
The ending especially is poignant and makes one wonder at how different people come to terms
with what life offers them. The book has several stories, intricately woven into one. It was a 4/5
read for me. There was something that was missing from making it a completely wonderful read,
for me.

12.1 Characterization of the Novel Sari Shop

Rupa Bajwa's "The Sari Shop" set in the little city of Amritsar captures evocatively, the social
atmosphere of small-town India. Her narrative encapsulates the spirit of the sari-shop environment
with its spirited, intimate, interaction between shop personnel and regular patrons. In the
background, the rustling silk, soft cotton and shiny synthetic saris reach out to us so realistically
that we long to hold and caress them in our hands. Apart from that, the unplumbed pathos of
Ramchand, an assistant in Sevak Sari Shop, whose world revolves around selling saris to the
women customers, deadens our heart with sorrow. Ramchand's life and his isolation in the
indifferent world are effortlessly carved out in fine detail. Is it surprising then, we are drawn to
empathize with his empty, monotonous existence?
Ramachand's loss of his doting parents at a tender age is very moving. He is forced into menial
work by his uncle who grabbed his inheritance. His desire to master English language is noteworthy,
as it is rekindled one day, when he is sent to display sarees for the trousseau of a wealthy man's
daughter. Suddenly, his life seems to acquire a purpose as he meticulously sets about learning
new English words from "Radiant Essays" and "A Complete Writer" assisted by an old Oxford
English dictionary. As he reads, he seems to grasp the meaning of his life and the avidity of life
around him. It was a sad moment, when he began to understand the pathos of the underdog and
the aggression of the conqueror; in this case the one on top of the social hierarchy. The transformation
in Ramachand is to make him humane to the hurts of society and the woes of the secondary sex,
women. Kamala, the wife of another sari shop assistant Chander, inadvertently opens his eyes to
the double standards lived by men in the patriarchal society. At the end of it, Ramachand realizes
the futility of trying to turn the system around and instead, finds comfort in lapsing into his
routine existence. Our journey is outward with Ramachand, into the stagnant, oppressive social
system and inward with him into his suffocating, futile ruminations. I could only throw up my
hands in utter despair, at the futility of it all, when nothing materialized. I wished that Ramachand
would have persevered.

The characterization in the novel I feel is pertinent to the trivial rivalries that
seethe beneath the surface of life lived by petty traders and class-conscious, middle-
class wives. The wives of rich industrialists with their empty lives and the educated
class with their snobbish intellectualism, is skillfully caricatured.

The lives of the lower middle class, their resigned acceptance of poverty, their escape into filmi
world and their aspirations to higher things through English speaking jobs, brought a lump into
my throat due to the streak of desperation that intertwined hope.
I found wonderfully comical moments in the novel as, when Hari, another shop assistant imitates
the portly shop owner or when Ramachand sneaks into the wealthy wedding reception to taste the

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