English Literature - Anita & Me - Meena Kumar - Quotes

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Chapter 1

  • "my heart unaccountably flipping like a fish" - Meena - Shows how Meena is desperate for Anita to like her.
  • "I wished I was a tortured soul" - Meena - Meena doesn't feel exciting enough and doesn't really know who she is. She wished she had a somewhat dramatic past so that people would accept her.
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Chapter 2

  • "When would anything dangerous and cruel ever happen to me?" - Meena - Meena doesn't feel exciting enough and doesn't really know who she is. She wished she had a somewhat dramatic past so that people would accept her.
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Chapter 5 - Card 1

  • "hurt, angry, confused and horribly powerless because this kind of hatred could not be explained" - Meena - Shows Meena's bewilderment and inexperience of racism.
  • "the songs made me realise that there was a corner of me that would forever not be England" - Meena - Shows Meena's dissapointment that she could never truly fit in.
  • "I stood open-mouthed in admiration, wondering what spell she had cast, to turn these boy-men, whom I would have crossed streets to avoid had I seen them hanging around any corner near my school, into grinning, pliant pets." - Meena - Shows Meena's adoration toward Anita and how she sees her as some wonderous, even magical being.
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Chapter 5 - Card 2

  • "something fobidden and new, and I didn't want to miss out." - Meena - Meena is constantly searching for exciting opportunities and begins to rebel against her parents in her search. 
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Chapter 6 - Card 1

  • "I never had to force my admiration. It flowed from every pore." - Meena - Again, shows Meena's adoration of Anita.
  • "Anita made me laugh like no one else" - Meena - Meena is almost infatuated with Anita.
  • "she gave voice to all the wicked things I had often thought but kept zipped up inside my good girl's winter coat." - Meena - Anita isn't afraid to say all of the things that Meena kept bottled up.
  • "Anita's monologues, all spark and spit, illuminate the darkness like fireworks." - Meena - Anita's impertinence fascinates Meena due to the great contrast between Anita's behaviour and the way in which she has been taught to behave. - 'Monologues' however, suggest tiward a very one-sided friendship.
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Chapter 6 - Card 2

  • "Her irreverence was high summer for me, it made me shed my inhibitions like woollen layers until I felt naked and slightly embarrased at the sound of my joy." - Meena - Anita makes Meena feel comfortable and as though she can speak and act freely, without judgement. - (irreverence = a lack of respect for people or things) (inhibitions =  a feeling that makes one self-conscious and unable to act in a relaxed and natural way.)
  • "I knew I was a freak of some kind, too mouthy, clumsy and scabby to be a real Indian girl, too Indian to be a real Tollington wench, but living in the grey area between all categories felt increasingly like home." - Meena - Meena doesn't know where she fits in.
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Chapter 7 - Card 1

  • "a snuffling, milky mass of warm roundness barring the way to her heart." - Meena - Meena feels as though Sunil has created a distance between her and Mama - She's jealous.
  • "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." - Meena - Meena has seen betrayal disloyalty for the first time after witnessing how Dierdre went behind Anita's back with the poet at the fete and has become more cautious of it.
  • "she had looked right through my eyes like a telescope and seen the wicked thoughts and easy lies and bitter frustration that sometimes seemed to fill my head until it felt like it would burst." - Meena - Meena feels as though the fortune teller can see all the reservations of her friendship with Anita that she has been trying to keep bottled up.
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Chapter 7 - Card 2

  • "I knew if I got too close to her during one of her wordless seething tempers, I would be sucked into it like a speck into a cyclone. ...if I retreated too far she would sense my fear and detachment and turn on me, accusing me of betrayal." - Meena - Meena is afraid of Anita and must tip-toe around her in order to maintain the friendship she has worked so hard for. She is scared of Anita.
  • "I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach. My legs felt watery and a hot panic softened my insides to mush." - Meena - Meena feels betrayed by Sam Lowbridge.
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Chapter 8

  • "a country that seemed full to bursting with excitement, drama and passion, history in the making, and for the first time I desperately wanted to visit India and claim some of this magic as mine." + "I felt this continual compulsion to be someone else in some other place far from Tollington." - Meena - Meena is growing up and has learned to love her Indian heritage. Her perspective of India has completely changes after Nanima's visit.
  • "Before Nanima arrived, this urge to reinvent myself, I could see, was driven by shame" - Meena - Nanima mad Meena proud to be Indian.
  • "In that one moment at the fete, when Sam had opened his mouth and let the cider and his single brain cell do the talking, he had taken away my innocence." - Meena - Shows how deeply Sam's outburst had affected Meena. She's realised just how horrible people can be.
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Chapter 9

  • "the fact that I had apparently got away with it made me feel light-headed and free. Maybe now things would be different; I would no longer be anita's shadow but her equal" - Meena - Meena often refers to Anita's acceptance as freeing ("unfettered" etc.) showing how her position as Anita's inferior makes her feel trapped.
  • "She needed me maybe more than I needed her. There was a fine line between love and pity and I had just stepped over it." - Meena - Meena has gained a wider perspective of her friendship with Anita.
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Chapter 10

  • "I would not have Anita play the same games with my parents that made me dizzy and confused." - Meena - Meena has finally realised that Anita has manipulated and messed with her through the entirety of the friendship and is not pleased that she is doing the same to her parents.
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Chapter 11

  • "Sam's words remained with me. I felt as if I had been spat at, that there were gobs of bile hanging off my cheeks, the ends of my hair, and I had to be on my own to wipe myself clean." - Meena - Shows, once again, how shocked and hurt Meena was because of Sam's outburst.
  • "I needed someone to talk to. I needed to talk about Sam. Anita, being my best friend, should have been with me. But, I knew, as soon as I thoght this, that she would not have understood that there were some things that we would never be able to share." - Meena - Meena realises that her and Anita were simply too different to become as close as she wanted them to be.
  • "Anita and I had never been meant for eachother: Sam and Anita, Anita and Sam, it sounded as natural as breathing." - Meena has come to realise just how different and mismatched her and Anita were.
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Chapter 12

  • "I was having to learn the difference between acting and being - and it hurt." - Meena - Shows how Meena has matured. She knows she canno longer tells lies, simply to make herself more interesting.
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Chapter 13

  • "their wayward tomboy had suddenly become a walking cliche of the good Indian girl" - Meena - Meena has grown out of her rebellious behaviour and has grown to be "more seroius about things".
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