In Meena’s household there are many traditional activities and a few traditional beliefs. The main activity they carry out is a celebration where the children of every person attending the party have to perform some sort of performance like dancing, singing or even praying. One of the beliefs they have is that they should be proud of where they came from and not to change the traditional ways of life. In the movie there is no real reference to the religion of Punjabi apart from the elephant god that Meena runs into, but she thinks nothing of it and runs by. Most Punjabis would have thought of that as some sort of blessing or a sign that something fundamental was going to happen. When Meena’s grandma comes over from India she shows the family a few traditional activities: like drying your clothes by slapping them on a wall. The one which the family are not used to doing is the 5’k,s which mean different things, but the final one means KNIFE. The grandma carries a large knife with her, which comes in handy from time to time. This proves to be true when Sam and his group of friends approach them. They whip out a small flip knife and challenge Meena and her grandma, But grandma whips out her larger knife and Sam and his mates scarper.
In the story the older people, like Meena’s Mum and her auntie are constantly trying to impress each other with the ability of their children. As a result of this the children don’t really get on. Meena blames Pinky and Baby for the theft of the money from the shop. Meena’s family focuses less on the religion side of life and more on the education/career side of life. Auntie Shaila would prefer her kids to be more traditional and stay at home and be a housewife. Auntie Shaila has taught her children to speak Punjabi and shows this skill of a lot in the play. Meena’s parents prefer her to do well at school. Meena has a more relaxed relationship with her parents, but Pinky and Baby are always trying to impress so they are living in worry.
In the film there is a definite difference between the Asian family and the white families. For example, next to Meena is Anita, her Mum and younger sister. When Anita’s Mum greets Meena’s Mum she is quite rude and uses a lot of slang, but Meena’s Mum is polite and helpful where ever and whenever she can. I think that the Asians are polite and helpful because they are trying to fit into an area where they are a minority and they don’t want to be getting peoples backs up. They want to hear people saying good things about them, then they may be properly accepted.
Meena’s Mum likes to cook traditional Indian food because she feels English food has no taste, but is covered in flavourings. When you think of Indian you think of curry and onion barji. This is not what Meena’s family ate, they had chicken and peas. They had this meal when Anita was eating with them. As she was from the local area she had never seen or even heard of most of the food, adding to this she didn’t like it so she ended up having fish fingers. Meena’s Mum says, “ British kids have rickets because of their poor diet.” Here she is trying to say that all Indian food is tasty and will build you up in the correct way. The food is healthy, nourishing and tasty.
The comment that the nurse made about Meena’s mum, saying that Indian women have a lower pain threshold than British woman is a stereotypical view, because different women have different pain thresholds. These stereotypical views and racist views are given many references throughout the film. The local villages are sometimes racist and some do it without thinking, like it’s the norm. Anita’s mum without thinking calls the new dog “Nigger”, this is racist but Anita’s mum has obviously been racist for a while.
At the celebration of Dewali, the women of the family are washing the pots. After dinner they are discussing the other people in the area and one mentions something about the way that the British people wash their pots. They say that the British let the pots soak in the water. They say this doesn’t work properly. What Indian women do is let the water run over them. In a way this is being sort of racist to the white people saying that they are weird because of the way they wash their pots.
When Meena and her Grandma go to the shop, the shopkeeper speaks to her like she is a baby and understands absolutely no English that we later learn is not true. The shopkeeper tries to be polite to Asian families, but is very belittling when she talks about their culture. The shopkeeper tries to use the money they raised for the African babies to repair the church roof. She would rather help her local church than starving, dying kids. The original idea was to use the money for the babies, but she keeps trying to persuade everyone to fix the church roof.
In 1970 there were a lot of racial attacks. This is featured in the local paper, which Meena’s Mum reads. Her views are clear when she says, “it’s the same sky.” This implies that she feels that there should be no racial attacks in the area that she lives, like it is in India. She feels that when we look up we see sky and people all over the world are seeing the same sky.
In the movie some of the white characters refer to Meena and her family as wogs and darkies. A member of Meena’s family is beaten up and is killed. She then hears that Anita and Sam went “Paki bashing.” This starts to ring alarm bells and Meena then realises that it was Sam who killed her uncle. Nowadays there are quite a few racial attacks on blacks and Asians. Also there are gangs of blacks and Asians attacking whites.
The film finally ends with English music being played in the background. The whole family starts to dance to the music and then Meena’s Dad begins to sing in Punjabi along with the music. This shows that the two cultures are eventually beginning to mix.
Conclusion
The movie covers many areas of life, from racism to repairs to the local church. In the movie Meena begins to grow and changes her decisions about things that previously her parents made the choice for her. Her family goes through the highs and lows of life and eventually get what they want, which is Meena to do well at school, so that they can move away. Meena struggles against an expectant family that she can't please and a racist community that reject her. She just wants to grow up normally. Meena had left one phase of her life behind, she was going off to Grammar School and had matured enough to realise that Anita was never a real friend.
