Anita and Me, Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

·         Main Events:

o   Meena meets Tracey with her new dog but is shocked to discover that they’ve named it a racist term. When she tells this to her mother, she is shocked although her father insists that this is more ignorance than racism.

o   Anita comes and asks Meena if she wants to go and watch the fairground being put up in the village.

o   On the way, Anita tells Meena about a witch living in the Big House and the pair of them recite prayers to ward off evil.

o   At the fairground, Anita warns Meena to avoid the gypsies and meets Sherrie and Fat Sally. They see three older boys setting up the rides and Anita strikes up a conversation with one of them before introducing them to the other girls who quickly pair up.

o   Anita tells the girls that the boy she is with, who Meena refers to as ‘The Poet’, wants to ‘shag the arse’ off her. Anita presses Meena to see if she understands. The girls go back to the boys and Meena, feeling left out, leaves.

o   Back at home, Meena puts on her mother’s make-up before the Aunties and Uncles arrive for Diwali. However, this just amuses the adults and she is made to wash it off.

o   Her father sings a song to the group and Meena is encouraged to do the same. She sings a traditional song but her Birmingham accent causes amusement. Meena then sings a modern pop song with the dance moves but ruins it by repeating the phrase ‘shag the arse off it’ that she overheard earlier to describe the song. Horrified, her parents send her to bed.

o   Meena goes downstairs to help her parents serve food but overhears her mother telling Auntie Shaila everything about her behaviour. Meena is mortified and sneaks back out to the fairground.

o   Once there, Meena meets Sam Lowbridge who helps her fire a gun at a shooting range stall, and also meets Sherrie who shows Meena a love bite. Meena is confused and thinks that Sherrie has been beaten up.

o   Meena sees Anita with her mother, Deirdre and is impressed. However, when Anita goes to get food, Meena sees Deirdre and The Poet disappearing off into his caravan. Meena lies to Anita and they go on rides together.

o   Afterwards, Anita takes Meena to sneak into the garden of the Big House. Inside, Meena finds a statue of Ganesha but then they hear dogs and escape. Meena doesn’t tell Anita what she saw.

o   On return, Meena discovers her mother going into labour.

·         Background Stories:

o   Meena talks about Diwali and is shocked that no-one else around her knows about it.

o   Meena recalls being introduced to religion by Auntie Shaila and asks to visit a temple. Meena’s mother agrees to take her but the journey is marred by her mother’s terrible driving. At one point, Meena is told to ask a line of cars to move backwards and is shocked by a racist response from another driver. The visit itself is taken up with Meena’s mother worrying about the drive home.

o   Meena mentions a girl called Jodie who went missing and was discovered to have drowned in the ponds behind the Big House.

o   Meena remembers her mother having to give a lift to a family called the Mad Mitchells after offering them one but not expecting that they would say yes. 

Anita and Me, Chapters 3 - 4

Chapter 3:

·         Main Events:

o   Anita approaches Meena who is sitting outside eating sweets. Anita asks Meena to join her, making Meena feel proud.

o   Outside Mr and Mrs Christmas’s house, Anita encourages Meena to run up an alley way, shouting. Mr Christmas comes out of the house and shouts at them for making a noise. Whilst Meena is apologetic, Anita says ‘Tell me mom. I don’t care’. Anita is shocked and impressed by her attitude.

o   Back at Anita’s house, Anita asks her sister Tracey where her mum is but Tracey doesn’t know. Upset by this, Tracey bursts into tears and Hairy Neddy invites the girls in for food. Anita is about to hit Neddy with a stick when his back is turned but Deirdre, her mother appears.

o   Deirdre tells Anita and Tracey to come in for fish fingers. Meena is at first excited at being invited in too but then surprised when Deirdre says goodbye to her instead and shuts the door.

o   At home, Meena finds her mother getting a vase out of their outhouse for Mrs Worrall, whose husband has knocked hers over.

o   Meena begs her mother for some English food. Her mother confronts her about stealing the money that morning.

o   Mrs Worrall asks Meena to come and help her make jam tarts. After, Mrs Worrall introduces Meena to Mr Worrall, an invalid who was seriously wounded in the war. Meena feels sympathy for Mrs Worrall but runs out, taking her jam tarts with her.

·         Background Stories:

o   Meena comments on Anita’s friends, Sherrie and Fat Sally.

o   Meena recalls that she last saw Mrs Christmas a long time ago when she was collecting things for the Christmas Fayre. She also mentions that it is known around the yard that Mrs Christmas is ill with cancer.

o   Meena talks about Uncle Alan – a friendly man in his twenties who encourages the children to get involved in various activities for the church. She refers to him as a ‘sex symbol’.

o   Meena remembers the clothes that Mrs Christmas gave her as being very colourful, which contrasted with her knowledge of Mrs Christmas as an old lady.

o   Meena talks about Hairy Neddy who plays in a band. She recalls a time his car broke down and his organ (old fashioned keyboard) turned on and started playing music. Neddy was rescued by Sandy who lent him some stockings to tie the organ on the car. After this, Meena saw Sandy change her appearance and make excuses to speak to Neddy. After a while however, Sandy goes back to wearing her old clothes, much to Meena’s confusion.

o   Meena tells a short story of two mothers fighting and compares them to her own, placid and calm mother.

o   Meena introduces Sam Lowbridge, a local teenage troublemaker, and his mother Glenys.

o   Meena mentions asking her mother about Mrs Worrall, who has children who live in Wolverhampton who never visit. Meena’s mother tries to hide her disgust at this fact.

Chapter 4:

·         Main Events:

o   Meena’s parents are waiting for her and ask he to come and speak to them. Meena’s father tells her an Indian version of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ although Meena is disappointed by the story.

o   Meena asks her father about being in a war and he tells her a story about how he was asked to deliver a package which turned out to be a bomb. She is very grateful for this story and her mother brings her out some fish and chips for dinner.

o   That night, Meena is woken by ambulance sirens. Looking outside, she watches as Mrs Christmas is taken off on a stretcher, dead, and Mr Christmas is led away by police. Meena overhears Deirdre explaining that she’d gone to speak to Mr Christmas about Anita’s behaviour earlier and had found Mrs Christmas who had been dead for weeks.

o   Mr Christmas dies three weeks later and Meena’s mother attends his funeral. Afterwards, her parents sit talking about their grandparents in Punjabi.

o   Meena’s parents then decide to tell her that they are expecting a baby. Meena makes it clear that this is not something she wants.

·         Background Stories:

o   Meena recalls her parents mehfils, parties with the Aunties and Uncles. On one occasion, Meena wakes up to hear shouting during one of these parties. She overhears her Aunties and Uncles talking about the horrors of Partition.

o   Meena talks about her grandparents who she has never met. She also talks about her parents relationship and their way of constantly showing affection, uncommon amongst other families in Tollington. She compares them to the Ballbearings women, who drink and shout about their partners in the streets.

Anita and Me, Chapters 1-2

Chapter 1:

·         Main Events:

o   Meena’s father takes her to Mr Ormerod’s shop to force her to admit that she stole money. Meena had claimed that she’d been given sweets for free but in the end admits that she took money to avoid the shame of Mr Ormerod knowing what she did.

·         Background Stories:

o   Meena recalls Mrs Worrall showing her a photograph of Tollington when the mine was still open.

o   Meena explains that the Big House has been bought by someone mysterious who sometimes gets expensive deliveries.

o   Meena first mentions that their garden is full of herbs and plants unlike the colourful gardens around her.

o   Meena recalls first meeting Anita, who lies and claims her dad is a sailor in an advert. Confused by this, Meena spoke to Anita’s dad and asked him if he missed the sea.

o   Meena explains about the ‘Ballbearings women’ who work in a factory. Their husbands used to work in the mines and now stay at home.

o   Mr Ormerod is introduced as an overly enthusiastic Christian.

o   Meena recalls being punished in class that week for kicking a boy who had made a racist comment.

Chapter 2:

·         Main Events:

o   Meena overhears her parents arguing when they get home.

·         Background Stories:

o   Meena recalls a birthday when she went into Wolverhampton with her parents. On the way home, she choked on a sausage but was saved when the car went over a bump and the sausage flew out.

o   Meena also comments on the Indian clothes her mother wears when out and the fact her mother refuses to eat out.

o   Meena comments on how the neighbours respect her mother and see her as ‘the epitome of grace, dignity and unthreatening charm.’ However, Meena also notes that her mother makes fun of the English behind their backs. This is made clear when Meena tries to encourage her mother to grow flowers and have gnomes in her garden, a suggestion met with sneers.

o   Meena talks about her ‘Aunties and Uncles’, not actual relations but Indian friends who regularly visit and act as extended family. Meena does try to explain this to her neighbour, Mrs Worrall.

o   Meena remembers overhearing romantic stories of her parents meeting and describes her parent’s life in India.

o   Meena remembers a favourite story of how her mother witnessed a murder a long time ago.