Red, White, and Whole

Reha describes her birth and how her mother almost died giving birth to her. The novel poetically describes how her mother stayed alive to look after her daughter, telling the Lord of Death to “[w]ait a while longer” (13). Because of Reha’s traumatic birth, her mother cannot have any more children.

The year is 1983 and Reha is 13. She listens to the song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and thinks about how she wants to “be like everyone else” (14). Amma explains that their family is different from American families because they “work hard, / […] dress modestly, / [and] focus on what is important to succeed” (14). Reha listens to her mother but is conflicted. America is where she was born and is the only home she has ever known. She is caught between her two lives.

This chapter describes Reha’s earliest memory, from when she was three. In the memory, she and her parents are looking at the moon. Her father tells her that Amma is named after the moon. Amma explains that Reha means “star.”

Reha describes how her parents first came to America before she was born. They lived in New York and struggled to get by, but they were also happy and now remember those times fondly. Now, they live in a “small, midwestern city” (18) and are more settled and financially secure. There are not many other Indians in their city, but Reha and her parents are friends with all of them, “regardless of language or religion” (18).

Reha thinks about what kind of star she is: cold and distant, or warm and life-giving. Her parents rarely call her by her name. They call her kanna, which means “darling” or “dear one.”

Sunny is Reha’s Indian friend. Her real name is Sunita, but everyone calls her Sunny. The two girls have known each other since they were two years old. They are very different from each other; Sunny “wears the latest clothes / has a separate phone line in her room, / [and] dreams of becoming an actress” (20). Despite their differences, the girls are as close as twins and never fight. Sunny goes to a different school than Reha does. Reha attends a private school and wishes that she could go to the same school as Sunny, because then she would feel like the two halves of her life would be “whole for once” (21).

Reha remembers being six and getting ready for a party. In the memory, Amma is putting on a sari. Reha asks Amma if she wore a white sari to her wedding, and Amma tells her that she wore red, because “red is an auspicious color—lucky—for brides” (23). Amma says that Christians wear white for weddings, but Hindus wear white for funerals. Amma wore white to her mother’s funeral but was not able to attend her father’s funeral because she was in America.

Rachel is Reha’s American friend at school. She “wears glasses and doesn’t wear makeup” (25). Rachel is very funny, smart, and self-assured. Reha wishes that she were more confident, like Rachel. The two are always together at school. In English class, however, Reha is assigned a new partner; a boy whose “face is as still as stone” (26).

Reha recalls being seven. In the memory, her mother has started a new job in a hospital lab. As Amma is getting ready in the morning, she tries on different bindis, small circular dots that many Hindus wear in the middle of the forehead. Amma explains to Reha that at work, many people ask her about her bindi, “Because there aren’t that many people here who are Hindu” (27). Her boss has asked her not to wear her bindi at work, because it makes her patients and coworkers uncomfortable. Reha asks if this makes her mother sad. Amma says yes, and wipes away her bindi.

Reha reflects on how much her mother does to keep their family running. Amma is “always in motion” (29); she wakes early every morning to make hot breakfasts for her husband and for Reha; then, she goes to work, picks Reha up from school, and makes her snacks. After making dinner, she repairs or embroiders clothes by hand. Amma always tucks Reha into bed at night, telling her to “Take rest, study hard, make us proud” (30). Reha is trying to follow her mother’s instructions.

Reha is eight. One day, she falls and skins her shin badly. The injury is serious, but it does not hurt. Reha is dazed by the sight of her own blood. Her parents take her to the emergency room where a doctor patches her up. She likes how he explains everything to her and decides that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up, even though the sight of blood makes her faint.

Amma calls her father Daddy. He is an engineer. He is “logical, / precise” (33) and kind. He tells Reha that although she is smart, the most important thing in life is to work hard. He believes that Reha can be anything she wants to be.

Reha is 10. She is very sick, with a rattle in her lungs and a pain in her chest. Her mother takes her to the doctor, where they find out that she has pneumonia. Amma takes care of her as she drifts in and out of consciousness.

Reha compares herself to everyone else, especially to the other girls at school. The other girls are nice, but recently, they have started to care about things like hair, fashion, makeup, and boys. Reha and Rachel are the only girls who still raise their hands in class and who do not care about boys or fashion—“at least not much” (36). While the other students go to the mall on the weekends, Reha and Rachel spend their weekends with their families and friends, but “not the [friends] from school” (37).

This chapter describes Amma’s job in the hematology lab at the hospital, where she “spins the blood and counts the cells / in the Complete Blood Count” (38). This chapter gives some context for the title of the book, Red, White, and Whole, as it talks about the different components of blood: red blood cells and white blood cells, which together make up whole blood.

Reha is in English class with her assigned partner, a boy named Pete. Their class is studying The Sword in the Stone. When they were younger, Pete fell off the playground and cut his face on his glasses. At the time, Reha was disturbed that Pete did not cry at all. Now, Pete no longer wears glasses. Reha thinks about his eyes and how they seem to change color. She tries not to stare at him.

In French class, a girl asks Reha if she speaks “Indian.” She asks this because Reha is so good at languages, but Reha is frustrated by the question. She wants to tell the girl that India is a huge country with dozens of languages, cultures, and religions. She wants to tell her that she never studied Tamil or Kannada, the two languages her parents speak, because “they only talk to [her] in English” (43), but all she says is “no.”

This chapter describes Reha’s experience of feeling alienated at school. She thinks about how her eyes, hair, and skin are “different from everyone else’s” (44) and how people seem smug about this difference.