Shyam Kumar (Papa)

Shyam Kumar — known throughout the novel simply as Papa — is Meena's father and a central moral intelligence of Anita and Me. A first-generation Indian immigrant living in the fictional Black Country village of Tollington in the early 1970s, he is distinctly unusual in his community for two reasons: he is one of very few South Asian residents in an overwhelmingly white working-class village, and he is visibly, unashamedly educated in a milieu that regards bookishness with suspicion. He reads poetry, tends his garden with care, and speaks fluent, precise English — not as performance, but as genuine expression. Syal presents him as warm rather than remote, principled rather than preachy, and his gentleness never tips into passivity. He has carefully considered who he is and decided, quietly but firmly, not to apologise for any of it.

Papa does not undergo a dramatic personal transformation in the novel — that journey belongs to Meena — but he shifts meaningfully from background presence to moral foreground. In the early chapters, he functions as a reassuring constant: the steady parent behind Mama's livelier anxieties, the bookish father in a house full of noise. His motivation throughout is dual and occasionally in tension: he desires to belong to England — to Tollington, to the workplace, to the social fabric of the Midlands — while refusing to dissolve his identity. He is aware of the racism around him; he simply chooses dignity over grievance as a daily strategy. The crisis provoked by Sam Lowbridge's racist graffiti brings this private strategy into the open, and it is here that Papa's arc crystallises. His refusal to retaliate or retreat transforms an act of hatred into a lesson in self-possession, shifting him from supportive parent to explicit ethical model.

Papa's most defining scene is his response to Sam Lowbridge's racist graffiti, which directly targets the family. Rather than confronting Sam with anger or retreating into the house, Papa remains composed and dignified — a response that astonishes and eventually instructs Meena, who has sought approval from the kind of people Sam represents. This moment encapsulates his philosophy: self-worth is not granted by a community; it exists within.

His interactions with Nanima during her visit from India are equally revealing. As a cultural translator and devoted son, he tenderly navigates between two worlds, helping Nanima connect with the English neighbours while drawing emotional sustenance from her presence. The visit highlights how much of his calm is rooted in this cultural continuity — he is anchored by his origins rather than floating free of them.

His encouragement of Meena's storytelling, even when her fabrications cause embarrassment, is a subtler but persistent thread. Where another parent might punish the dishonesty, Papa perceives the creative impulse beneath it and chooses to nurture rather than extinguish.

With Meena, Papa serves as the novel's ethical north star. He does not lecture, but his example — his reading, his composure, his refusal of bitterness — gradually provides the moral vocabulary Meena assembles by the novel's end. His belief in her imagination is one of the few unqualified gifts she receives.

With Mama, their partnership is complementary and loving but not without friction. His idealism meets her pragmatism; his calm absorbs her anxiety. Together they embody the immigrant couple's double bind — assimilate enough to survive, retain enough to remain whole — and they navigate it as a team, even when pulling in different directions.

With Nanima, Papa reveals his deepest tenderness. His filial devotion and his role as go-between confirm that his bicultural poise is not rootlessness but a hard-won equilibrium.

With Sam Lowbridge, Papa represents everything Sam's ideology cannot accommodate: a Brown man with education, dignity, and belonging. His non-retaliatory response denies Sam the confrontation that might validate Sam's worldview.