Anita and Me is a Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age novel, written by comedian and writer Meera Syal in 1996. The story is semi-autobiographical and is narrated by the nine-year-old protagonist Meena Kumar. Meena lives with her Indian parents in a fictional town called Tollington, a small industrial village in the West Midlands, England. The story relates Meena’s life in a working-class community as the daughter of immigrants, and in this way, Syal raises questions about societal attitudes and conditions in 1970s England in relation to poverty and racism.
Meena’s parents, separated from their families in India, create a close-knit community of South Asian immigrants in Tollington. Syal draws attention to cultural attitudes towards family life; Meena’s family is surrounded by the love and support of neighbours and friends who are considered “aunts” and “uncles”.
Meena’s friendships, however, expose her to very different values to the ones taught at home. Her experiences with friends’ abusive and neglectful families, and her friends’ attitudes towards immigrants in the disadvantaged English community, leave Meena caught between two cultures.
The novel draws attention to the bonds of heritage and friendship that shape an individual’s identity. At the beginning of the novel, Meena is presented as rebellious and unwilling to conform to Indian traditions and her role as an obedient and quiet Indian daughter. While Meena is set on defying her parents, she becomes friends with 13-year-old Anita Rutter, and is abruptly exposed to problems in the wider world beyond the safety of her Indian community. Meena’s friendships force her to deal with discrimiination, as well as verbal and physical abuse. These troubled relationships lead, ultimately, to conflict and betrayal, and Meena realises she must turn her back on her friends.