Anita and Me Characters

Meena Kumar

Nine years old, sharp-tongued, and desperate to be English — until she learns what that desire costs. She wins a grammar school place and leaves Tollington carrying her grandmother's silver mirror and her own hybrid voice.

Appears in:

Part 1: The Village of Two Halves

Part 2: Dares, Diwali, and the Facts of Life

Part 3: Nanima and the Silver Mirror

Part 4: Blood, Leaving, and Two Shadows

Themes:

Belonging and its price

Two worlds, one girl

Racism on the doorstep

Girls raising girls

Leaving without leaving

Anita Rutter

Fourteen, blonde, and ruler of the estate kids — everything Meena wants to be and everything Meena should run from. She can't defend Meena from racism, falls for Sam Lowbridge, ends up pregnant and leaving school, and gives Meena a locket on their last meeting.

Appears in:

Part 1: The Village of Two Halves

Part 2: Dares, Diwali, and the Facts of Life

Part 3: Nanima and the Silver Mirror

Part 4: Blood, Leaving, and Two Shadows

Themes:

Belonging and its price

Girls raising girls

Nanima

Meena's grandmother from India, in white widow's saris, praying constantly and speaking little English — initially an embarrassment, then a bridge. Her stories of Partition and her freedom-fighter husband give Meena a history to be proud of; she dies clutching her silver mirror.

Appears in:

Part 3: Nanima and the Silver Mirror

Part 4: Blood, Leaving, and Two Shadows

Themes:

Two worlds, one girl

Girls raising girls

Sam Lowbridge

Skinhead teenager whose racist abuse and violence expose the limits of Meena's friendship with Anita. He beats Dr Sodhi outside the pub and gets Anita pregnant.

Appears in:

Part 2: Dares, Diwali, and the Facts of Life

Part 3: Nanima and the Silver Mirror

Part 4: Blood, Leaving, and Two Shadows

Themes:

Belonging and its price

Racism on the doorstep

Mr and Mrs Kumar

Meena's parents: a civil engineer father who makes her apologise for shoplifting and weeps openly at his mother's funeral, and a mother who sews fairy costumes from saris and tells Meena 'Now you can be anything.' They host the Diwali party Meena dreads.