Summary
It is now springtime, and the townspeople of Tollington take to their “ritualistic” spring-cleaning routines. Meena particularly enjoys the household curiosities—i.e. an old pram, a stuffed mongoose—that the “Mad Mitchells” dump in their front yard.
Meena, narrating as an adult, reflects on the Sixties, the era of her childhood. In popular media, the Sixties are often depicted as a time of psychedelics and sexual liberation; to Meena, this image greatly differs from her childhood understanding of Tollington, where drug use was simply the buying of over-the-counter aspirins and the “sexual revolution” was merely Sam Lowbridge’s kissing of girls on the playground. Moreover, Meena remembers the lack of Indian representation in the media, and the pride her family felt when Rita Farrier, a woman from India, finally won the Miss World contest.
The narrative returns to the spring of Meena’s tenth year, as the community meets to celebrate Tollington’s Spring Fete, hosted on the large estate of a local construction manager, Mr. Pembridge. Meena and Mr. Kumar go to the fete without Mrs. Kumar, because Mrs. Kumar is increasingly occupied with caring for her newborn Sunil; the baby is only happy if he’s in his mother’s arms.
The Spring Fete is a large, open-air market where the townspeople of Tollington (and several neighboring communities) can buy and sell goods to raise money for charity. In the past, there have been debates over the use of the fete funds to support “Third World” charities, with Mr. Ormerod believing they should export cultural values, not donate household amenities. Meena remembers how Mr. Ormerod’s condescending views upset her mother, especially since their Auntie Usha had recently been verbally assaulted on the street by a gang of “shaved head boys.” Meena hints that this memory of racial tension foreshadows the events that will unfold at the Spring Fete.
The Spring Fete begins with a welcome speech from the host, Mr. Pembridge. He beckons his wife to stand by his side, and to the surprise of the townspeople in the audience, Mrs. Pembridge speaks with a lower-class accent. Meena scans the crowd and sees Sam Lowbridge with his biker gang. They have changed their appearance, shaving their heads and wearing leather jackets, to match the fashion typical of skinheads.
Meena and Mr. Kumar first visit Sandy’s stall, where Sandy sells hand-made stuffed animals. No one wants to buy from Sandy because her stuffed animals hardly resemble any real animal—until Hairy Neddy offers to buy four animals. Neddy tricks the bystanders into believing Sandy’s animals are a popular new toy (mismatched animals designed to encourage a child’s imagination) and suddenly the bystanders swarm to buy Sandy’s toys. Hairy Neddy whispers a marriage proposal into Sandy’s ear, and Sandy accepts.
Meena joins Anita at a fortune-teller’s stall. In past years, the fete’s fortune-teller had been a woman who based her “predictions” on what she expected her customers to want (i.e. she’d always give an idealized fortune). But this year’s fortune-teller is a different woman. The new fortune-teller, an Indian woman, gives Anita a glum fortune, greatly angering Anita, who storms off without paying. The fortune-teller gives Meena a similarly ominous fortune: Meena’s mother will fall sick, and someone from overseas will come to help Meena’s family.
For the remainder of the fete, Meena cautiously follows the angered Anita, feeling simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by her. They encounter Sherrie, sitting under a tree, smoking a cigarette. Sherrie brags about her new bra, embarrassing Meena. Sherrie also has a new horse, and invites Anita to come visit her farm. Anita says Meena has “got to come too,” and they all agree to meet at Sherrie’s farm the next day. At the end of the fete, Mr. Pembridge announces which town has raised the most money: Tollington. Reverend Ince speaks next, and reveals that the donations will be used to finance a new roof for the church chapel. Townspeople begin whispering in disappointment. Sam Lowbridge shouts from the edge of the crowd: “Bloody church roof? What’s that gonna do for us, eh?” Uncle Alan, who also opposes Reverend Ince’s decision, believes he can help Sam to engage in a productive dialogue with the reverend, and attempts to facilitate a compromise between the two. But Sam rejects Uncle Alan’s olive branch, calling him a racial slur and even charging at Uncle Alan with his motorbike. Meena is horrified, especially when Anita soon after expresses admiration for Sam’s actions. Meena feels betrayed by Sam, and even more so by Anita.
Meena and Mr. Kumar walk home in silence. They find Mrs. Kumar sitting in the living room with the lights turned off, as she stares out the window at the night sky. Mrs. Kumar begins to cry. She says, “I can’t do this anymore,” and expresses a yearning for her family in India. The next day, Mr. Kumar reveals to Meena that Meena’s maternal grandmother, Nanima, will be coming from India to stay with the Kumar family. The fortune-teller's prediction has come true, and Meena goes “icy cold.”
Analysis
Chapter 7 focuses on Meena’s changing perceptions of Tollington and its townspeople; as Meena grows increasingly conscious of the town’s racial tensions—culminating in Sam Lowbridge’s xenophobic demonstration at the Spring Fete—the town that once seemed familiar to Meena now seems unfamiliar: Meena foreshadows this change at the chapter’s beginning, saying, “But since joining Anita’s gang, I had become more suspicious of how the familiar could turn into the unknown, and what happened at the Fete revealed how many strangers did indeed live amongst us” (p. 173). Throughout Chapter 7, Meera Syal accentuates Meena’s changing point-of-view by incorporating complementary changes in imagery and language: characters change their appearance, and change the way they speak.
The chapter is set during springtime, and begins with a description of the spring-cleaning habits of Meena’s neighbors. These details both concern change—a change of seasons associated with new plant growth, and a getting rid of the old—and symbolically preface the chapter’s thematic exploration of changing points of view. Visually, the characters of Tollington are changing, too. At the fete, Meena notices Sandy “without make-up” and, as a result, Meena thinks Sandy looks “vulnerable and younger” (p. 176). Soon after, Meena notices Hairy Neddy, “or a neater, washed version of him” (p. 177). Later, Meena encounters Sherrie, who looks “so much older” and brags about her new bra (p. 187-188). And, lastly, Meena notices that Sam and his gang have modified their appearance, adopting the uniform typical of skinheads, with shaved heads and tight-fitting denim (p. 174).
These examples of changing appearance are not merely symbolic, for, in Chapter 7, Meera Syal shows that visual appearance can tangibly alter an individual’s perceptions, even shaping an individual’s relationship to others. For example, when encountering the fortune-teller, Meena says “she looked Indian enough to be one of my Aunties and it made me want to trust her” (p. 184). Here, we see how images can create community, encouraging Meena to “trust” a stranger. Likewise, visual appearance is used to denote community when Sam’s gang adopts a shared skinhead fashion. Meera Syal seems interested in the power of appearance, particularly because appearance’s power can reach dangerous heights in the form of sexism or racism—wherein negative judgments are formed on the superficial basis of gender or skin color—two central points of conflict for Meena in Anita and Me.
Chapter 7 also shows how language—the words someone chooses to use—can shape others perceptions. For example, when the wealthy host of the Spring Fete, Mr. Pembridge, introduces his wife, Mrs. Pembridge, the townspeople are shocked to hear that Mrs. Pembridge speaks with a working-class accent: Meena says, “It was a miner’s daughter’s voice, all tin and rust and under the earth” (p. 174). Someone in the crowd responds, “Blue blood, my arse. It’s gin!” (p. 174). Here, language becomes an indicator of class and social prestige—so, the townsfolk are surprised when an established class marker is subverted. Later, we see language used as a tool for exclusion, even violence, when Sam Lowbridge shouts xenophobic slurs at Uncle Alan. Language becomes action, with speech becoming a way to form allegiances and break trust. Consider the sense of betrayal Meena feels upon hearing Anita compliment Sam, after Sam’s racist performance: “In’t he bosting”, Anita says. Three words to mark the beginning of the end of Meena’s friendship with Anita.
These thematic explorations reach a conclusion with Meena’s realization at the end of the chapter: “But tonight I finally made the connection that change always strolled hand in hand with loss, with upheaval, and that I would always feel it keenly because in the end, I did not live under the same sky as most other people. I did not need a bra or some blue eyeshadow to appear older, not tonight” (p. 197). The changes observed in Chapter 7—from Sam’s changed fashion to Anita and Sherrie’s new bras—become symbols of the losses Meena endures. Sam’s racism causes a decline in Meena’s trust in her community, and Meena recognizes the perhaps insurmountable differences between her and Anita. In this quote, Meena separates herself from the others, and rejects the visual as an appropriate measurement for character: she doesn’t “need a bra or some blue eyeshadow to appear older.” In Chapter 7, Meera Syal spotlights the significance of the visual and superficial, but she does so, seemingly, to critique this significance.
