Summary and Review of The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa

chillibreeze writer — Rohini Chopra

Rupa Bajwa’s The Sari Shop is a poignant novel 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.

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.

Fascinated by Indian writers?

You might want to read The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.

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Rohini writes for Chillibreeze.

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