How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
These days in India many up-and-coming families have miraculously discovered noble backgrounds—famous relatives who worked with Mahatma Gandhi in the early days of South Africa—but I have no such genteel heritage. We were poor Muslims. (1.2)
The family's destiny is defined by race from the get-go. They don't have the advantage of having the right kind of blood to have automatic success, so they have to work really hard.
Quote #2
We were not of the shantytown, or of the upper class of Malabar Hill, but instead lived on the exposed fault line between the two worlds. (2.75)
For the Hajis in Mumbai, it's a dangerous thing to not belong to either side. The family has worked itself into a nice position, but Papa is kind of playing with fire by not belonging to either the upper or lower class. Because he tries to breach the gap and please both worlds, the family ends up with tragedy.
Quote #3
When we arrived, a few streets of Southall were also in the throes of gentrification, worked over by ambitious second-generation immigrants. Papa called them the "Anglo-Peacocks". (3.11)
Papa refers to people of their race who have acclimated to Western life "Anglo Peacocks." It's a negative name for those who he sees as having abandoned their old way of life and adopted a new culture.