Syal, Meera

Meera Syal was born on 27th June 1961 in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, to Punjabi parents from New Delhi. She attended a grammar school in nearby Walsall, which opened up many educational opportunities for her. The importance of a grammar school education is a theme which features prominently in her semi-autobiographical novel Anita and Me.

After attending Queen Mary’s High School, Syal went on to Manchester University to study English and Drama. In her final year at university, she won the National Student Drama Award, and she graduated with a double first. Three years later, Syal married Chandra Shekhar Bhatia and four years later in 1993, Syal wrote the screenplay for the film Bhaji on the Beach, about a group of British Punjabi women on a trip to see the Blackpool Illuminations. This film began a very rich vein of creativity, with Syal helping to write and perform the popular BBC comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me, which ran from 1996 to 2001.

1996 was also the year that Anita and Me was published. Syal has indicated in interviews that much of this novel was based on her own experiences of being from an ethic minority background growing up in a village in the Midlands. The novel was made into a successful film in 2002. 1997 also brought honours as Syal received the title Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Syal’s daughter, Chameli, was born in 2001, and a year later she got divorced from her husband, Chandra Shekhar Bhatia. 2002 and 2003 also saw the release of two popular works by Syal: the musical Bombay Dreams in 2002 and the novel Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee in 2003. Both these works draw on Indian culture: Bombay Dreams is about a young man from a Bombay slum who dreams of being a Bollywood star, while Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee is about the friendships between three Indian women living in London and the decisions they make throughout their lives. Her third novel, The House of Hidden Mothers, published in 2015 is partly set in India and partly set in Britain and explores issues surrounding international surrogacy.

In 2005, Syal married Sanjeev Bhaskar, with whom she had worked on Goodness Gracious Me, and in the same year their son, Shaan, was born. 2011 saw Syal becoming Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and four years later, she received the title Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Photo credits:
Meena from Anita and Me Study Guide for GCSE English Literature