Rupa Bajwa Biography and latest books by Rupa Bajwa

Rupa Bajwa was born in Amritsar in 1976, and is an Indian Writer in English who lives and works in Amritsar, Punjab.

In 2004,she published her first novel, The Sari Shop, which explores her hometown and the class dynamics of India. The novel won the writer flattering reviews, with reviewers calling her India’s new literary find. The Sari Shop was long listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2004. The novel won the XXIV Grinzane Cavour award for best first novel in June 2005, the Commonwealth Award in 2005 and India\'s prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for English 2006.

The Sari Shop has been translated in several languages, among them: (French): Le vendeur de saris , (Dutch): De Sariwinkel and Serbian: Prodavnica sarija.

Though she is from a Sikh family, Bajwa wrote a controversial piece called Dark Things Happen in Gurdwaras Too, in The Telegraph, an Indian newspaper. This piece brought her flak from the Sikh clergy. Rupa Bajwa also writes book reviews and articles on other interests in The Telegraph, The Tribune and India Today. She is currently working on her second novel.

The Sari Shop

The Sari Shop revolves around the anxieties of Ramchand, a shop assistant at Sevak Sari House in Amritsar. Ramchand was not born poor. His parents get killed in an accident and he is brought up by his uncle. As soon as he is old enough to fend for himself his uncle finds him a job as a shop assistant where he is condemned to a life of ennui and drudgery and far from the education he craves so much.

But all this changes suddenly when he is dispatched to the rich, English-speaking Kapoor household to deliver saris and fabrics for the daughter’s trousseau. Seeing them converse in English, Ramchand’s passion gets re-kindled and he buys himself a second-hand grammar book, an Oxford Dictionary, a fresh pair of socks and a bar of Lifebuoy soap. These four things, he is convinced, will give him the kind of life he has wanted for himself.

The novel captures the essence of Amritsar with all its gossip, its alleys, its busy bazaars, its eateries, mannerisms and its petty rivalries among the rich and bored women.