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Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 9: Rupa Bajwa: Sari Shop—Concept of Feminism

Unit 9: Rupa Bajwa: Sari Shop—Concept of Feminism Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
9.1 Sari Shop—Concept of Feminism
9.2 Summary
9.3 Key-Words
9.4 Review Questions
9.5 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to:
• Introduce Rupa Bajwa’s the Sari Shop.
• Understand the Concept of Feminism.
Introduction

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?
Ramchand'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 Ramchand 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, Ramchand 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 Ramchand, 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 Ramchand
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

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