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Unit 11: Rupa Bajwa: Sari Shop—Theme

A gem of a novel about the stuff life’s made of Rupa Bajwa’s The Sari Shop is a poignant novel Notes
enhanced by its clearly etched out and identifiable stereotypical characters. The story revolves
around Ramchand, an assistant in Sevak Sari Shop who goes about his humdrum life, mostly
selling saris to wealthy clients who visit the store. The vivid illustration of the city of Amritsar
with its gamut of people and places is indeed very compelling. The book also clearly brings out
the class differences prevalent even in modern day India. The simplicity and palpability of the
story are its major strengths.

11.2 Brief Description to Sari Shop

The novel opens with the description of a typical day in the life of Ramchand, in the bustling by
lanes of the older part of the town of Amritsar. Orphaned in his childhood and having to live with
his uncle, he deals with many hardships and has to forgo his dreams of getting an education, as
he is made to fend for himself at a young age. He starts out as an apprentice at the sari shop and
from then on his life is primarily restricted to the store with occasional trips to the nearby dhaba
and the movies.
Ramchand comes across as a sensitive man who happily goes about his work until one day he
awakens to a window of possibilities after a visit to the house of Rina Kapoor, the daughter of the
wealthiest man in town. This glimpse into the world of the English-speaking affluent people
awakens in him the desire to better himself. He arms himself with a couple of second hand English
language and letter writing books to learn English with renewed vigour. But, with the learning he
becomes more aware of the travails and tribulations in the society around him. As he strives to
learn English he realises the futility of situations when he finds out about the brutal rape of Kamla,
one of his co-workers’ wives.
Bajwa successfully gives the readers a clear insight into the lives of her individual characters and
evokes empathy for them all, as they seem to be victims of their own trappings. Her portrayal of
women characters range from the socially depraved like Kamla to the privileged few like Rina
Kapoor. Then there are other well-defined characters such as Mrs. Sachdeva, the college professor
and Shilpa, disinterested in education and looking forward to an arranged marriage by her parents.
Laced with dark humour, The Sari Shop ends with Ramchand ultimately resigning to his fate after
going through varying emotions of loss, pain, angst, hope, disillusionment and resentment. Overall
an impressive debut.
It is another working day in Amritsar, and Ramchand is late again. He runs through the narrow
streets to Sevak Sari House, buried in the heart of one of the city’s main bazaars. There, amongst
the Bangladesh cottons and Benaras silks, Ramchand and his fellow shop assistants sit all day,
patiently rolling and unrolling yards of coloured fabric.
Then, one afternoon, Ramchand is sent to a new part of the city with a bundle of saris carefully
selected for a trousseau. His trip to Kapoor House jolts him out of the rhythm of his daily routine
and his glimpse into this different world charges him with an urgent sense of possibility. And so,
armed with a second-hand English grammar book and a battered Oxford Dictionary, a fresh pair
of socks and a bar of Lifebuoy soap, Ramchand attempts to realize the dream that his childhood
had promised. But soon these efforts turn his life upside down, bringing him face to face with the
cruel reality of his very existence. The Sari Shop heralds the arrival of a writer who combines a
profound sensitivity with humour and unflinching honesty. Rupa Bajwa’s story is both
heartbreaking and very real, and depicts a modern world in which hope and violence are
permanently entwined.
Part one: Ramchand, the protagonist, and all the main characters in the story, either work at or
visit The Sari shop regularly. So the story has little to do with how the sari shop itself came into
existence, or about its sales figures, or the number of varieties of silk-threaded draperies that the
shop carries. All those people who scorned at the idea of having to read something that deals with
boring saris, and moreover, sari shops- come back! It is definitely not a “chick flip”.

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