Rupa Bajwa is an Indian writer who lives and works in Amritsar, Punjab as well as spending time in various other Indian cities and towns. She is a recipient of the Grinzane Cavour Prize, the Commonwealth Award,[clarification needed] and India's Sahitya Akademi Award.
Rupa Bajwa | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Amritsar, Punjab, India |
| Language | English |
| Notable awards |
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Novels edit
In 2004, she published her first novel, The Sari Shop, which explores her hometown and the class dynamics of India.[1] 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 Prize for best first novel in June 2005, the Commonwealth Award in 2005 and India's Sahitya Akademi Award 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) and Italian.
Rupa Bajwa's second novel, Tell Me a Story, was released in April 2012. It was met with extreme reactions. It received critical appreciation from some quarters, at the same time creating controversy among the literary circles in New Delhi, since a part of this novel lampooned these very people.[2]
Currently, Rupa Bajwa is working on her third novel.[3][4][5]
Columns edit
Though she is from a Sikh family, Bajwa wrote a controversial piece called "Dark Things Do Happen in Gurdwaras Sometimes", in The Telegraph, an Indian newspaper.[6][7]
Works edit
- 2004 The Sari Shop
- 2012 Tell Me a Story
Further reading edit
- For a post-colonial perspective on Bajwa's novel, The Sari Shop, one can consult the Raiganj University Professor Pinaki Roy's "Multicultural Differences: A Brief Rereading of Rupa Bajwa's The Sari Shop", in the Ketaki Dutta-edited Sahitya Akademi Award-winning English Collections: Critical Overviews and Insights (New Delhi: Authors Press, 2014, ISBN 978-81-7273-728-3), pp. 272–286.
References edit
- ^ Sood, Ashima. "THE EMIGRANT AND THE NATIVE: the Indias of Akhil Sharma and Rupa Bajwa". Another Subcontitent. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
- ^ "Tell me a story".
- ^ Singh, Roopinder (22 May 2004). "Write recipe". The Tribune. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
- ^ "Book review: 'Tell Me a Story'". 29 April 2012.
- ^ Daftuar, Swati (2 June 2012). "A voice of her own". The Hindu. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
- ^ "Dark things do happen in gurdwaras sometimes". The Telegraph India. 6 February 2005. Archived from the original on 6 January 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
- ^ Bajwa, Rupa (6 February 2005). "Dark Things Do Happen in Gurdwaras Sometimes". Sikh Times. Retrieved 3 January 2012.