Meera Syal
Fearless comic Meera Syal has no sacred cows - she uses her razor
sharp wit against all comers.
But the Goodness Gracious Me star is curious to know where that rebellious
streak comes from.
"I've always been quite obsessed by my ancestry," she says.
"I hope to find things that completely surprise and delight me and
give me and my daughter more of a sense of our place. I was a transplanted
generation and I knew if I didn't understand my past, then I wouldn't
be able to make sense of my future."
Born in Britain, Syal's parents came from the Punjab in India and settled
in Walsall.
"They caused quite a scandal when they married for love after a seven
year secret romance," she says proudly.
"They came from different religious backgrounds - my father's family
were Hindus and my mother's family were Sikh. I want to know where their
unconventional streak came from."
Travelling back to her parents' homeland, Syal discovers a grandfather
who was a rebellious communist journalist and one who was given a Freedom
Fighters award for his part in the struggle for Indian Independence
from the British.
"I've got freedom fighters on both sides of the family - I'm quite
proud of that!
"Together the two families give me a real sense of Punjabi history.
Partition in 1947 was the largest mass migration in human history,"
she explains.
"Our legacy is that two generations learned from bitter experience
that their world can turn upside down in a moment.
"In Goodness Gracious Me we had lots of sketches about Asian parents'
need to make money, to marry their children to doctors and have the
big car - now it completely makes sense."
Visiting the remote village where her ancestors lived, Syal retrieves
a stone from the ruined family home - now a cowshed.
"I wanted to cry," she admits. "It was just a stone off a cowshed,
but I was holding a piece of history. It was like a Bollywood film."
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