Page 114 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Indian Writings in Literature

Notes book, the author talks about writing it to express her frustration with Indian society and the vast
inequalities facing women and the poor. I enjoy fiction about India, and believe this is one of the
better treatments I’ve read on the subject. This debut novel certainly points to better things to
come from Rupa Bajwa.
Self-Assessment

1. Fill in the blanks:
(i) When Ramchand is sent to a new part of the city to show wares to a wealthy family
preparing for their ............... .
(ii) The novel won the Commonwealth award in ............... and India's prestigious Sahitya
Akademi Award for English ............... .
(iii) Rupa Bajwa is an Indian writer, born in Amritsar. She published her first novel,
............... .
(iv) Ramchand washing his ............... with lemon juice before he visits the Kapoors.

13.2 Summary

• Ramchand, a shop assistant in Sevak Sari House in Amritsar, spends his days patiently
showing yards of fabric to the women of "status families" and to the giggling girls who
dream of dressing up in silk but can only afford cotton. When Ramchand is sent to a new
part of the city to show wares to a wealthy family preparing for their daughter's wedding, he
is jolted out of the rhythm of his narrow daily life. His glimpse into a different world gives
him an urgent sense of possibility. He begins to see himself, his life, and his future more
clearly. And so he attempts to recapture the hope that his childhood had promised, arming
himself with two battered English grammar books, a fresh pair of socks, and a bar of Lifebuoy
soap. But soon these efforts turn his life upside down, bringing him face to face with the
cruelties on which his very existence depends.
• The Sari Shop is a compact psychological study of a sari-walla in Amritsar. It focusses on the
contrasts between his life and 1) what his father had hoped for him; 2) the customers of the
sari shop; 3) his co-workers; 4) the suffering wife of this co-worker. These drive him to a
breaking point. Unlike many books about India, this one does not end in utter tragedy. The
novel is entirely modern in its setting and focused in its concerns. No reference is made to
Amritsar’s tragic history under the British Raj, but perhaps the author assumes that the
reader cannot be unaware of the broader context of the novel. If you are unaware, I highly
recommend Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet.
• At the Sari Shop, he is exposed to women from wealthy families and is inspired to study
english, spending his meager earnings on books. One day one of his colleagues does not
come to work and Ramchand is sent to find out why. He goes to the address in a squalid part
of the city and finds his colleagues wife in a drunken stupor. This wife was also an orphan
but her experiences had scarred her badly and having discovered her husband’s liquor, she
had become an alcoholic. Ramchand was moved to try and help her and almost lost his job
and his sanity in the process. This story exposes the corrupting influence of wealth and the
corrosive effects of poverty that continue in parts of India today.
• The Sari Shop is about many things, but for the main character, Ramchand, it is about the
development of character itself, particularly about putting one’s morals into practice under
morally impossible circumstances. Ramchand is born into a Hindu family of shop owners.
His mother is an observant Hindu who takes him to temple weekly, but he is too young to

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