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Unit 8: Rupa Bajwa: Sari Shop—Introduction to the Text

Self-Assessment Notes
1. Choose the correct options:
(i) Rupa Bajwa’s second novel Tell me a story has been released in April ............... .
(a) 2012 (b) 2008
(c) 2007 (d) 2002
(ii) Sari Shop was Bajwa’s ............... Novel.
(a) Second (b) Third

(c) Fourth (d) First
(iii) The protagonist of the Novel Sari Shop ............... .
(a) Hari (b) Ramchand
(c) Lakhan Singh (d) None of these
(iv) The Sari Shop was listed for Orange Prize in ............... .
(a) 2000 (b) 2002
(c) 2005 (d) 2009

8.2 Summary

• It was a well-crafted book, it began and ended well, the chapters flew seamlessly into each
other. There was a good streak of humour running through it. It received favourable reviews
in the press… goes the description given by the author about one of her characters, Rina
Kapoor’s book. Coincidentally, this could be the perfect account of the first part of the novel,
that too, in the author’s own words.
• The Sari Shop revolves around the anxieties of Ramchand, a lowly shop assistant at Sevak
Sari House in Amritsar. Ramchand was not born poor. His parents are killed in an accident
and he is brought up by his uncle. As soon as Ramchand is old enough to fend for himself his
uncle finds him a job as a shop assistant where he is condemned to a life of ennui and
drudgery and far from the education he craves so much. But all this changes suddenly when
he is dispatched to the rich, English-speaking Kapoor household to deliver saris and fabrics
for the daughter’s trousseau. Seeing them converse in English, Ramchand’s passion gets re-
kindled and he buys himself a second-hand grammar book, an Oxford Dictionary, a fresh
pair of socks and a bar of Lifebuoy soap. These four things, he is convinced, will give him the
kind of life he has wanted since childhood.
• The novel captures the essence of Amritsar with all its gossip, its alleys, its busy bazaars, its
eateries, mannerisms and its petty rivalries among the rich and bored women. 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.

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