Maya Running Summary
Maya Running Summary
Author: Anjali Banerjee
Type: Fictional story
Subject: As the only South Asian in her middle school, Maya knows all about being different in her tiny Canadian town.She doesn’t speak Bengali, she’s at that awkward stage of pimples and endless limbs, she doesn’t want to move to California, and she’s madly in love with the coolest boy in her school who just might like her back.When her perfectly gorgeous cousin, Pinky, arrives from India to exacerbate Maya’s insecuritiesl, Maya prays to Pinky’s round-bellied Hindu elephant god, Ganesh, for help.She goes through a 13 Going on 30 sort of transformation, without the fast-forward, literally becoming an assertive, multilingual, overnight beauty.But then, getting her wishes granted is just the beginning to realizing what she really wants in life.
Caracters: Pinky, Maya , Pinky
Summary
Thirteen-year-old Maya is caught between the white, racist world of 1970s Manitoba and her Indian family and traditions. “I am Nowhere Girl in my Nowhere Land” she says, echoing the Beatles song.Nevertheless, she does have friends, dreams of being a writer and even captures the attentions of local bad boy Jamie. But when her cousin Pinky arrives, stunning in her saris and even more so in borrowed Levis, she steals everyone’s admiration, including Jamie’s.Maya pleads to a statue of the Indian God, Ganesh, who helps her by “remov[ing] obstacles removing illusions” and plunging her into a world where she becomes the beauty and the center of everyone’s affections.This jarring move into the fantasy realm doesn’t really work, but it does pick up the pace; Maya journeys to India where readers become privy to the very different sights, sounds and smells of trains, homes and bazaars.In a fairly predictable ending, Maya realizes her self-centeredness and, as Ganesh predicts, “sees the truth” of her life: that she can embrace the uniqueness of her double identity and carve out her own path as an aspiring writer.