Depression is well-portrayed by Ms Bajwa in this book. Though not an extreme form, but once in a while we all go through these "phases" and the only way to come out of it is to shake it off. This aspect makes the story more realistic. Although Ms Bajwa could have gone to the other extreme trying to make it a tragedy, the book certainly is closer to real life.
The interesting part is the choice of the protagonist himself. I personally have somehow overlooked the sari shop sales people and have never given a thought about their individual self-s.
However, there are a few character portrayals that probably did not require as much dealing that in turn tends to mislead the reader. But overall the description of the town, the sari shop and the customers at the shop is absolutely amazing.

Well written, but very depressing, and leaves reader with no hope.

I read this book shortly after returning from my second trip to India. It captures so much of India, the splendor, the squalor, the injustice, the fight to survive. Some scenes had me gasping; it's an intense but richly satisfying read. I felt truly transported, in an honest and unflinching way.

The Sari Shop is about many things, but for the main character,
Ramchand, it is about the development of character itself, particularly
about putting one's morals into practice under morally impossible
circumstances. Ramchand is born into a Hindu family of shop owners.
His mother is an observant Hindu who takes him to temple weekly, but
he is too young to absorb any special identity or spirituality that
can be called Hindu. As an adult, Ramchand proves to be especially
empathetic toward a Sikh couple who have lost two barely adult sons in
an Indira Ghandi assault on the Golden Temple of Amritsar(Operation Blue
Star, 1983), trying to give solace to them in their own home.

Ramchand's parents enrolled him into English medium school at age 6, but
that same year, both parents were killed in a catastrophic bus accident.
Ramchand was sent to a distant uncle in Amritsar for his education, but his uncle selected a more economical curriculum. Ramchand spent summers with his grandmother. At age 15, Ramchand was withdrawn from school and received a school leaving certificate. Ramchand did not leave school with the knowledge of English he had hoped to achieve. He observed later that no one had ever asked to see his certificate showing he completed eighth grade. His work would not require much reading, writing and figuring.

The astonishing thing is that Ramchand's family expected him to support himself fully and to live independently from age 15 on--and he did without any further contact from his family apparently. The action of THE SARI SHOP opens when Ramchand is 26 and he has been living and working in the same place since he was 15. Through his work at the Sari Shop, Ramchand becomes acquainted with the absolute wealthiest famlies in town and even arranges a quick and dirty invitation to the wedding of one of Amritsar's wealthiest daughters.

There is a lot of description of the different kinds of saris available at
the shop. They are divided by fabric, by design--by type of border, by type of skirt; there are saris and salwar kameezs, and each garmet can have a head piece called by various names such as pallu or chunni. The colors are vividly described e.g. "bottle green."

Ramchand learns from his friends at the Sari House, particularly Chander,
that one of the wealthiest families in Amritsar withheld temporarily, then
permanenetly, three months of regular wages from a significant number of workers. Ramchand tries talking calmly to the factory owner and is firmly told that the profit margins don't allow the wages to be paid.

Ramchand also learns that Chander's wife is the victim of "persuasion" outside the law for demanding her husband's wages. She is drunk, arrested, raped, then sexually assaulted by the police using a lathi or night stick. In a different incident, Chander's wife Kamla threw a sharp object at another of the rich family heads, Ravinder Kapoor. This time the reaction was catastrophic. Kapoor --no doubt off the record--hired goons to break all of Kamla's bones, parade her naked through the slum neighborhood, and burn down her slum house with Kamla
inside.

This systematic destruction of Kamla's life creates a moral crisis for Ramchand. The families responsible are the same ones who buy the most expensive saris. The other shop boys do not see the overall implications. Ramchand stays home two weeks without authorization trying to figure out what to do.

The book has a lot of comical elements that ride on the gossip of the ladies from the different families as they browse the saris. There is real color in the book as the descriptions of the fabrics jump off the page.

For me one of the most charming threads in the story is Ramchand's desire to learn English. Bajwa really makes it clear how lack of context makes it so hard to span the words, when one word can have so many meanings. Ramchand needs the "tuition" that the rich boys are getting. He also deserves it. Yet Ramchand is making real progress.

Despite the book having no real plot for the first 2/3rds, I was quite enjoying it. The main character, Ramchand was endearing, innocent, and had a sweetness that pervaded the simplest of his day to day tasks. There was excitement in the little things as opposed to complaining or sadness about the hardships and lack.
The author beautifully portrayed daily living in India in lower class working life.

Then events lead to Ramchand opening his eyes to injustices around him and he grapples with his emotions and struggles with the desire to take some sort of action. He tries in the best way he can to affect some sort of change but is lost for words, and being essentially a lonely man with no family or close friends, has no guidance, support or precedence for how to express himself. In the end the story simply ends with him resuming his regular life and routine and turning away from his desire to learn to read.
There is so much potential in the story for Ramchand to grow, to evolve or at least to come to a place of acceptance with the world he lives in. Instead, immediately after the "climax ", the book basically ends with no evolution described by the author. It was so disappointing.

Even if as a reader it was clear he was discouraged by his efforts, the writer failed to highlight how the story had a greater message about feminism, caste and the complexities of India. There was a missed opportunity for some heartwrenching poignancy and a deeper glimpse into how Ramchands reaction may symbolize India in a broader scale.

And what was with Ramchands headaches and fuzzy thinking/anxiety? It carried through the book and then was abandoned with no explanation? The novel that The Rani wrote about Ramchand... no evolution of that either.

لا اظنني استطيع النظر للساري بعد اليوم دون ان اتذكر رامتشاند ، غرفته القديمة ، كتبه و محاولاته للتعلم ، اخلاقه و ضميره الذي لا يسكت ، و لا حتى ذاك اليوم الذي تغير فيه كل شيء ...
ليس رامتشاند وحده بل جميع من معه في ارجاء الدكان ، في القرية ، و حتى في منزل الصفيح في القرية المجاورة الذي يتسم بوجودها ملقاة بساريها البنفسجي ذو الورود البيضاء الكبيرة .... !

الراية توصف لنا اجواء الهند ... و قصة شاب يتسائل عن كل شيء و يسعى للبحث عن الحقيقة ، عن الحياة ... هل يسمى ما يعيشه حياة اصلا ؟ او ليش ما يعيشه هو حتى من حوله لا يبدون احياء يفطنون ما الذي يفعلونه ! يحاول جاهداً ان يتغير و يحسن ... لكن للحياة صفعات ترجعه للبداية كل مرة ....
الرواية ذات اسلوب سلس و سهل و فيها جوانب مرحة و مضحكة و جوانب مؤلمة

رواية فاتنة

What starts off as a harmless tale of everyday life in a sari shop in Old Amritser turns halfway to a take on the social indefference prevalent in society and the vast differences in the line of thought among the rich and the 'poor'.
But by the end of the narrative, it is still everyday life all through that was being written about and nothing that is not what it is today in reality.

Some stories are so simple and come from such small places that they leave you mesmerized. The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa is one such story. A simple man, working in a Sari Shop in Amritsar decides to give his monotonous and failing life another chance . But in the end, gives up when all his efforts come spiraling down. A simple yet powerful read, not many writers can pull off a combination like this. But Rupa Bajwa pulled it off effortlessly.

The Sari Shop revolves around Ramchand, a tired shop assistant at Sevak Sari House who spends his days showing all kinds of saris to different sects of women, one sect that can afford silk sarees and the other one who would love to but finalize cotton saris for themselves at the end of the day.

Stuck in a monotonous job after a rough childhood, Ramchand doesn't see any end to his misery and inner self-loathing. Sevak Sari House, colleagues at the sari shop, dinner at dhabas and a beautiful neighbor's daily activities keep him company in his misery. But one day, his luck changes when he's asked to deliver a bunch of saris to a wealthy man of Amritsar whose daughter is getting married.

Just as Ramchad enters the Kapoor abode, he is jolted out of his monotonous, narrow life. A glimpse into a different world which he witnessed at Kapoor's house, gives him the motivation to work towards endless possibilities. And with this motivation, he attempts to recapture what he has lost before, his dreams of finishing his education and having a good career. He starts with two battered English grammar books, an old English dictionary, a new pair of socks and a bar of lifebuoy soap.

But then his feeble attempt towards a new life spirals his life upside down. It brings him face to face with the cruelties that lead him to this misery in the first place. A battered Ramchand falls down to the same place from where he dreamt of better things for himself. In the end, The Sari Shop shares a very stark reality of urban living and turns into a simple story which has a powerful message.

The Sari Shop is divided into two parts. The first part deals with Ramchand and his progress towards a better life. Rupa Bajwa's unpretentious writing makes you walk alongside Ramchand on his journey and even makes you disheartened on his failures. The first part also shows the stark comparison of urban India amidst Amritsar. From hypocrites like Mrs. Sandhu to the westernized and educated Mrs. Sachdeva, the characters are in full color in The Sari Shop.

The second part of the book introduces you to Kamla, Ramchand's colleague Chander's wife who shows the other side of atrocities, draped in exquisite Banarsi saris. Kamla, like Ramchand, wanted a better life but instead got everything that she never wanted. An alcoholic husband who beats her black and blue every night while blaming her for his failure, including a miscarriage. Kamla takes up the bottle for solace but ends up being raped by policemen and burnt to the ground by a gang of thugs, hired by the right and superior people of the society.

The Sari Shop is by the common people for the common people. Till now, I haven't come across a book so simple yet so beautiful, a story so powerful that needs to be read and shared more. We come across people like Ramchand on a daily basis, our home servants, drivers, gardeners etc. But never we look at them from a different perspective, never we pay heed to their dreams and aspirations. But after reading The Sari Shop, I will look at them from a different set of eyes.

A beautiful thing about The Sari Shop is Rupa Bajwa's flawless and bold writing. The language is simple yet powerful, and flow of the story is straight. Though in some areas you might feel that the story is a bit dragged, especially the first part, but it can be ignored. Some of the readers might expect the "masala level" to be good, but I am sorry to inform it is not like that. The Sari Shop is too simple for some readers and they might think it is boring till they arrive at the second part. But then, for me this is a book that introduced me to another brilliant writer, Rupa Bajwa.
All in all, The Sari Shop is a story that you should definitely read.

pure reality. its so bitter and will give you uneasy feeling after you finish the book. but its so honest and i could find myself relate to the protagonist on some level. btw i red it in indonesian languange translate by Mimamsa.

When it comes to contemporary fiction, I seek out the uncelebrated little novels more often than the awards shortlisters. This is one such book. It’s the story of Ramchand, who is bestowed with a thrilling opportunity to experience the world outside his employer’s sari shop. Rupa Bajwa has yet to publish a second novel, but I’ll be ready to read it when she does.

4.5 /5
Surprisingly, I found this book unpredictable.
The characters were so real, the setting even more so.You feel sad, happy, hopeful, sorry, angry and even judgemental during your journey through the novel.

(SPOILER ALERT!)
I found the ending most acceptable of many other probable ones, because is it not like everyone of us - getting agitated and rattled every now and then, with a burning desire to do SOMETHING - for couple of days max. And then, back to our routine life.