Summary
Several months have passed, summer has come and gone, and it is now Meena’s first year at comprehensive school. At lunchtime, Meena finds Anita sitting by herself with reddened eyes, as though she had been crying. Anita reveals that her mother has left the family. Meena tries to comfort Anita, hugging Anita and giving her a kiss. Anita pushes Meena, and accuses Meena of being a “lezzie.” Meena doesn’t know what a lesbian is. Anita responds, “Bet yow don’t know what a virgin is neither!” Meena pretends she does, even though she does not.
After school, Meena gets in trouble for asking her parents, “am I a virgin?” Her father thinks Tollington is a bad influence on Meena, and says that he wants the family to move. Mrs. Kumar agrees they should move if Meena does well on her eleven-plus exams. Meena, hoping to switch topics, tells her parents that Anita’s mother has run away. Mr. and Mrs. Kumar are deeply sympathetic, and encourage Meena to invite Anita over for dinner, whenever Anita might need it. That evening, Meena passes along the dinner invitation to Anita, and Anita asks if she can come for dinner that very night.
When Anita arrives for dinner, she is her usual mannerless self: she ignores Mr. Kumar’s attempts to make conversation before dinner, and instead watches TV loudly in the living room. Nanima, displeased with Anita’s behavior, indulges in being rude herself: Nanima takes up too much space on the couch, and talks over Anita in Punjabi.
Importantly, Anita’s visit is the first time Meena remembers a “non-relative” eating in her house. What follows is an awkward cultural exchange; Anita would rather eat fish sticks than curry; Anita is surprised the Kumars eat with their hands, and even more surprised when Nanima burps loudly at the table. But soon, Anita responds with her own burp. Some communion has been made.
After dinner, Anita asks to see Meena’s room. Meena is embarrassed, because Meena expects Anita to find the room boring, but instead Anita is amazed by Meena’s collection of Indian clothing. They spend the evening trying on every outfit.
Meena wants to give some of her clothes to Anita, but Meena knows her mother will disapprove. So, before leaving, Anita and Meena hide some of the clothes under Anita’s jacket. However, when Mrs. Kumar gives Anita a hug goodbye, the contents of Anita’s jacket fall to the floor. It turns out that Anita has not only hidden the clothes, but also stolen some of Meena’s magazines and jewelry. Mrs. Kumar politely, yet firmly, asks Anita to put everything back upstairs, except for one magazine.
When Anita leaves it is clear that the Kumars are hesitant to host Anita a second time. When Meena asks if she can invite Anita over again, Mrs. Kumar responds, “Um, of course […] But let Anita call you over to her house first.” Anita never does.
Analysis
In Chapter 10, several themes are explored, many of which deal with matters of the unknown and the unfamiliar: we see characters resisting change and we see conflict between cultural norms. One such theme, found throughout Chapter 10, is the human tendency to avoid the unfamiliar, even if it means losing out on a possible benefit. For example, when Meena learns that Anita’s mother has run away, Meena describes her failed attempt to comfort Anita: “I then did something I had never done before, swept away by a surge of protective tenderness. I put my arm around Anita and kissed her, whispering, ‘Sorry, Nita, I really am.’ She pushed me so violently I almost fell off the swing” (p. 247). Here, Anita would rather reject love and support, than risk changing her relationship with Meena. Anita has grown used to flippancy and emotional detachment; she presents herself as strong and uncaring. To accept Meena’s love, Anita risks changing her self-image, and Anita chooses the familiar rather than the new.
Later, we see a different form of risk aversion when Mr. Kumar hesitates to support the now-motherless Anita. Mr. and Mrs. Kumar argue, saying: “Daljit, we can’t interfere…’ ‘Oh my god, that is such an English thing to say! You have been living here too long! There are little children involved.’ ‘I know that,’ papa continued. ‘But we are not their family. They would see it as…well, rude'” (p. 251). Here, Mr. Kumar resists his family’s altruistic instinct, because he fears being misunderstood by others. Were Anita part of the Indian community, Mr. Kumar, seemingly, would be quick to help her, but because she is English—part of the unfamiliar—Mr. Kumar would prefer inaction over action. In both of these examples, a fear of the unknown leads Anita and Mr. Kumar to avoid behavior that might otherwise be greatly beneficial.
Another theme explored in Chapter 10 is the subjectivity of values—more specifically, the subjectivity of good manners. Throughout their dinner party, Anita and the Kumar family repeatedly encounter differences in their cultural values. For example, the Kumars alter their seating arrangements to better match British expectations: “I had insisted that we sit at the table, something we never did with Indian guests since we usually ate in shifts […] I want us to sit and talk, you know, like you’re supposed to do at dinners’” (p. 252). It is worth noting Meena’s diction, specifically her use of the phrase “like you’re supposed to.” In using this phrase, Meena suggests there is but one proper way of eating dinner: sitting as a group. Of course, this is contradicted by the earlier evidence: that Meena’s parents typically expect a rotating seating arrangement. What Meena considers objective—what you’re “supposed” to do—is in actuality subjective. Another example of contrasting etiquette is Anita’s shock at seeing the Kumars eat with their hands. Anita looks at Mr. and Mrs. Kumar’s “fingers with faint disgust, apparently unaware that all of us had a great view of a lump of half masticated fishfinger sitting on her tongue” (p. 253-254). This quotation succinctly (and with a touch of comedic irony) captures two different points of view, emphasizing the subjectivity of manners: while Anita believes the Kumars lack manners for eating with their hands, Meena thinks Anita lacks manners for chewing with her mouth open.
And if an individual’s values and manners are subjective, then those values can also be flexible, changed according to circumstance; this is shown in the meeting of Anita and the Kumars, wherein the impolite becomes polite, and the polite becomes impolite. The best example regards burping. Initially, Anita is shocked and “protest[s]” when Nanima lets out the “longest, loudest burp” (p. 254). But when Mr. Kumar explains that burping is a “sign of a good meal” (p. 255), Anita changes her values: in Meena’s words, once Anita finished her meal, Anita “finally did thank my parents with a window-shattering belch. Mama did not bat an eyelid. ‘My pleasure, darling,’ she replied. (p. 255). Anita changes her categorization of burping, moving it from impolite to polite. Mrs. Kumar’s response, with its comedic formality, further illustrates the point. Later in the chapter, we see the opposite exchange, wherein Mrs. Kumar uses polite language in a hostile encounter. Catching Anita trying to steal from the Kumars, Mrs. Kumar says, ‘Well, Meena should have asked me first then,’ said mama, a hint of flint in her tone. ‘Could you put them back please?’ (p. 257). Mrs. Kumar uses language typical of high manners—i.e. “should have,” “could you,” and “please”—but in a context of conflict. Meena’s description of the “hint of flint in her tone” emphasizes the subtextual hostility behind Mrs. Kumar’s language, showing how politeness can be used antagonistically.
One of the themes discussed in earlier chapters—the ethics of lying—is complicated further in Chapter 10. When Anita is disgusted by the Kumars' custom of eating with their hands, Meena lies to avoid conflict: “‘We always eat our food with our fingers,’ I said loudly to Anita. ‘Like in all the top restaurants. Bet you didn’t know that, did you?’ For the first time that I could remember, my parents caught a lie flying out of my mouth and threw it right back at me with a cheer’ (p. 254). Even though the Kumars typically reject the use of deception—just a few pages prior Mr. Kumar had threatened Meena, saying, “Meena if you are lying again…” (p. 250)—in this instance, they accept it with a “cheer.” Lying becomes a means of seizing control of the narrative, of altering opinions—in this case, Anita’s disgust—and protecting oneself.
