Rupa Bajwa’s “The Sari Shop,” set in the small town of Amritsar, evocatively captures the social atmosphere of a small town in India. Her narrative epitomizes the spirit of the sari shop environment with its energetic and intimate interaction between shop staff and regular customers. Deep down, whispering silk, soft cotton and shiny synthetic sarees approach us so realistically that we want to hold and caress them in our hands. Other than that, the unseen pathos of Ramchand, an assistant at Sevak Sari Shop, whose world revolves around selling saris to female customers, lulls our hearts with sadness. Ramchand’s life and his isolation in the uncaring world are effortlessly sculpted in great detail. Is it surprising then that we are drawn to empathize with his empty and drab existence?

Ramachand’s loss of his loving parents at a tender age is very moving. His uncle forces him to do menial jobs and seized his inheritance. His desire to master the English language is noteworthy, as he is rekindled one day when he is sent to exhibit saris for a rich man’s daughter’s trousseau. Suddenly, his life seems to take on a purpose as he meticulously learns new English words from “Radiant Essays” and “A Complete Writer” with the help of an old Oxford English dictionary. As he reads, he seems to grasp the meaning of his life and the eagerness 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 at the top of the social hierarchy. The transformation in Ramachand is to make him human in the face of the wounds of society and the evils of the secondary sex, women. Kamala, the wife of Chander, another clerk in a saree shop, inadvertently opens her eyes to the double standards that men live in a patriarchal society. In the end, Ramachand realizes the futility of trying to change the system and instead finds solace in falling into the routine existence of it. Our journey is out with Ramachand, into the stagnant and oppressive social system, and in with him into his suffocating and futile ruminations. I could only raise my hands in utter despair, at the futility of it all, when nothing materialized. I wished that Ramachand had persevered.

The characterization in the novel I think is pertinent to the trivial rivalries that simmer beneath the surface of life lived by class-conscious petty merchants and middle-class wives. The wives of the wealthy industrialists with their empty lives and the educated class with their snobbish intellectualism are cleverly caricatured. Lower-middle-class life, her resigned acceptance of poverty, her escape into the world of cinema, and her aspirations to higher things through English-speaking jobs, brought a lump to my throat from the streak of despair that intertwined hope.

I found wonderfully comical moments in the novel, like when Hari, another shop assistant, imitates the burly shop owner or when Ramachand sneaks into the rich wedding reception to sample the forty desserts laid out on the table or his surprise when see all the clients. and shop saris in them. The laugh-out-loud moments are, when I caught the rancorous chatter of ladies on a saree-shopping spree or watched Ramachand’s sexy dreams revolving around Sudha, his landlord’s young wife or watched him annoy the manager from your store in a perfectly structured roll. English or see his attempts to combat the bad smell of his feet with lemon juice. It is laughter mixed with pathos, as I catch a glimpse of Rina interviewing Ramachand to exploit his naïve and comic appeal in her first novel, while Ramachand imagines himself to be nice to Rina.

Is it not the total duplicity of the world where the law exists for the rich while the poor timidly accept injustice? The brutal rape of Kamala, the involvement of the wealthy Guptas, the apathy of the educated, eloquent and empowered Mrs. Sachadeva, the police pocketing the bribe and punishing the victim, the anguish of Ramachand who is just a bystander, left a lasting impression. one me The new perception of Ramachand, struggles to put some order in the justice system embedded in society. His sanity rightfully takes a beating, he retreats into madness with the intensity of his demoralization and returns to the deceitful current world to maintain his status quo. I sincerely welcome Ramachand’s efforts, albeit brief, to challenge the hierarchical social system of rich and poor.

Ramachand’s attempts to imbue his life with a bit of imagination and beauty by buying English books and trying to educate himself is very moving. At that particular moment, I was reminded of the Indian craze for the English language and its use as a benchmark for judging a person’s knowledge and place in the community. I think the novel is very insightful in giving a social commentary on society that reflects the existential torment of every human creature. At the same time, there is a delicate balance between reality and expectations, as life’s incongruities are deftly woven into the story.

I found the novel darkly humorous as it effortlessly drew me into the lives of the characters as they go about their lives. I feel that without our will we can empathize with Kamala or Ramachand or make fun of the emptiness of Rina or Mrs. Sachadeva. It may not be possible for us to break our limits or change the world around us, but sometimes it is necessary to try to understand ourselves and our life. The novel definitely does that. Congratulations to Bajwa for her sensible effort…