Red, White, and Whole

Reha’s father has three brothers, each of whom has two sons. Reha is the only girl among her six cousins. She gets to see the six of them every few years when she and her parents visit India. Her cousins all call her “sister,” and when she and her parents return to America, Reha is lonely.

Reha reflects on being an only child. Her house is quiet, and her parents “only think of [her]” (49). Sunny’s house is very different. Sunny has brothers, so her home is loud, there is competition, and Sunny’s parents “don’t notice if she wears lip gloss / or spends too much time on the phone” (49).

Reha used to like birthday parties, but now that she is older, she finds them more difficult. There are boys, and often, the vegetarian food runs out before she has a chance to eat, so she only eats cake and ice cream. Reha cannot enjoy herself in her homemade clothes; she worries that she will not fit in if she does not wear jeans and t-shirts like the other kids. The worst parties are the ones she does not get invited to at all.

Reha feels like her life is full of embarrassing things. Because her parents pay a lot of money to send her to a private school, and because of the cultural norms they were used to in India, they look for bargains on food, clothes, and everything else they buy. Reha is embarrassed by her mother’s attempts to haggle at the grocery store. She also hates it when her parents brag about her grades and her desire to be a doctor. Amma’s old, clunky car is another source of embarrassment, though whenever mother and daughter listen to the radio together, Reha forgets her discomfort a little.

Reha and Rachel both have certain rules surrounding what they can and cannot eat. Reha does not eat meat, while Rachel cannot eat “pork or bacon, / or any meat with dairy” (55). They both like eggs, however, and Amma makes them delicious egg curry “at least once a month” (56).

Mustard seeds are an integral part of cooking in Reha’s house. All the food that Amma makes “starts and ends with mustard seeds” (57). Amma is teaching Reha how to cook mustard seeds perfectly without burning them. Reha has not quite mastered the technique yet, but she is “stunned by the world of taste / in something so tiny” (57).

Reha loves pop music and often listens to it on the radio. When a DJ plays the exact song she hoped to hear without her having to ask for it, it feels like magic. She thinks about how pop music connects “all [her] friends, / everyone [she knows], / Indian and not” (59).

Reha thinks about her only memory of her maternal grandfather, who died when she was four. She remembers being on a train with him. He spoke to her in Tamil, and she remembers his voice filling her with love. Reha has no memories of her grandmother, her pati, as she died of an illness when Amma was still a teenager. She has seen a few pictures of her grandmother and thinks that she is beautiful, with “a hint of laughter in [her] eyes” (61).

Reha’s mother keeps a Hindu shrine in their basement, where she “lights lamps and burns incense to honor God” (63). Reha sometimes joins her in these rituals for holidays like Krishna Jayanti or Ganesha Puja. Because there are no Hindu temples where they live, they keep temples in their hearts. Amma explains that God is everywhere, and Reha believes her. She sees God in her parents.

Reha’s life is full of her parents’ expectations. She is expected to work hard at school so that she will not waste the opportunities that her parents gave her by moving to America. She is “not expected to like boys” (65) or date. When Reha listens to songs on the radio about people falling in love, she wonders what it would be like to follow her heart.

In English class, Reha and her peers discuss literary heroes. They learn about King Arthur in The Sword in the Stone, and how he was destined to “be the hero / […] to lead / […] to be king” (66). Pete questions whether being the king’s son makes Arthur the best leader for his people. Reha wants to ask why only men can be heroes, but she stays silent.

Reha describes her weekends, where she and her parents “gather with [their] Indian friends” (67) to talk and share food. She notices that Indian parents do not go on date nights like American parents. Although Reha knows that her parents must love each other, she never sees them “hold hands / let alone kiss, like people on TV / or the parents of [her] friends at school” (68). Her own parents seem more like roommates, and Reha wonders what her own romantic future will be like.

Reha’s paternal grandparents never expected to have a granddaughter, as all their other sons had sons. Reha believes that when she was born, after her parents moved to America, her grandparents “missed [them] even more” (69).

After school on Mondays, Rachel goes over to Reha’s house, and on Wednesdays, Reha goes to Rachel’s. They eat snacks, do their homework, and dance to pop music on the radio. There is a dance coming up at their school, and Rachel says that Reha should come. Reha has never been to a dance before and knows that Amma would not want her to go. But this time, she thinks about Pete’s eyes and realizes that she really wants to go to this dance. She resolves to ask her parents’ permission.

Reha and Sunny watch MTV at Sunny’s house. MTV plays music videos for all the girls’ favorite pop songs. Reha tells Sunny about the dance at her school and Sunny is excited for her. She tells Reha that she has to go, and that she will “help [her] fix [her] hair” (73). Reha is worried that Amma will not give her permission, but Sunny is optimistic. Reha believes that her parents live in the past, while she has “entered the future” (73).

In English class, Reha and her classmates discuss the original Star Wars trilogy. Pete is the only one whose favorite of the three is The Empire Strikes Back. He says that it is the most interesting of the trilogy because “It’s about learning how to be a hero in spite of the fact / that your dad is the most evil guy in the universe” (75). Reha cannot stop thinking about the look on Pete’s face when he says this.

In addition to weekly phone calls, Amma and Prema Auntie write each other aerogrammes, a type of letter, to keep in touch. Amma reads them to herself first, then out loud to Reha. Reha thinks about how these letters are like “a small piece of home” (78) that flies across the world to them.

Reha talks about how most of her peers have family nearby whom they “get to see all the time” (79). She describes the long journey that she and her parents must take during the holidays to visit their family in India. Although Reha’s family members in India always make her feel welcome, Reha feels like everyone else in India can tell that she is different. She does not fully fit in “no matter where [she] goes” (80) in India or in America.

Although Reha’s parents speak perfect English, their accents affect how people in America treat them. Their accents are not strong, but “people act like they can’t understand” (81) her parents. Reha has to play “translator” even though all she does is “repeat the exact things / [her] parents just said” (81).

Reha finally builds up the courage to ask her parents if she can go to the school dance. Her father agrees, saying that Reha should “have fun with her friends” (83), but Amma says no. Amma believes that Reha is now a young woman and should not be ​​“spending time with boys outside of school” (83). Reha wants to tell her mother that she wants to have fun and do American things sometimes, but she stays silent.

This chapter describes Reha’s parents when they get angry. Her father’s anger is hot; he shouts, but then in a few minutes “it is over / and he has forgotten what he shouted about” (84). Amma is different. She gets cold when she is angry, and “her anger is / long-lived / and slow” (84). When Reha asks about the dance, Amma becomes cold and “folds into herself” (84).