Authors Notes: Hello everyone. I have done a basic character profile for Mayank for the story I am writing. I would appreciate if you can give me feedback on this. Please note this is not fully complete yet.
Update for Nupur: I am stumped. It took me only thirty minutes to write Mayank and almost two hours for Nupur but I still feel that I have not justified her character very well. So dear readers, now its all up to you to fix it. :-)
Update for Mayur: I have discarded three drafts which reasoned out for Mayank and Nupur. I give up trying to find out reasons because there are way too many and there are none. I have however managed to write a few below. Now its all up to readers to accept it or discard it :-)
He is that guy who a girl can take home to and present in front her parents. And he is exactly that guy that every girl's parent dreams about. He is his mama's boy who excels in academics, stands up in what he believes in and an absolute nerd; a handsome nerd at that.
It seems as if he is from a single parent household, the parent being his mother. He shares and endearing rapport with his mother switching places with her often enough to be her caretaker. Perhaps this where he gets kindness and helping other girls/women come from. He is seen helping Nupur in the beginning of the college year not being a participant on the elaborate prank played by his classmates. His kindness towards others possibly stems from the close association with his mother. The level of interaction that one shares with their parents shapes them as they grow up. Like every parent she would have definitely taught the basic morals that one practices in the society but he must have experienced kindness shown by her first hand to imbibe in his own personality. The lesson that a single mother can teach to her young one would be based on the first hand experience that she has faced in her life. Perhaps this makes Mayank more sensitive as a human being.
He also is quite mature for his age and more so when compared to his peers. Though intelligence plays a role, but it must be the environment in which he grew up which made him the boy, no, the man he is today. Everything in his life is planned out and every future activity has been clearly laid out in his mind. This makes his mother tickle immensely and she teases him even more. She asks him quite often to loosen up, to be just a guy and have a blast which makes him roll his eyes and change topic before he is teased even further. His beliefs lie in tangible evidence derived from logical reasoning and rationality. All his explanations, be it in an adrenaline filled situation or an emotional one he relies on logical explanation which his mind holds in greatest conviction. This makes people around him think that he is cold and calculative. It doesn't bother him when people dismiss him as a nerd who resides in library permanently. But it does bother him when members of the opposite sex throw glances and few times blatantly stare at him.
He comes off as a shy person not willing to mingle but on a deeper look, the reason is not that superficial. He is aloof towards most of the peers, hanging around with a handful of people whom he deems capable of his company and generally aloof to rest of the world.
The distinction from the rest of peers comes in the mild arrogance that he has on his intelligence which is very well justified. In his case, arrogance rarely leads to ego. He lacks patience when it comes to frivolous or silly behavior.The confidence that he places on his intelligence is remarkable. He truly believes in what his mind tells him. His mind analyses what his heart dictates and tries to come to a concession. At every walk of his life, his heart has never betrayed his mind nor has his mind ever overcome desires of heart. The synchrony of these two is what makes Mayank's personality extremely attractive.
In the beginning, he doesn't seem that much of an alpha-male. No, he is definitely not a leader material but he definitely is a true alpha-male. It is not because he can get into a fight and pull it off with few scraps and bruises. It is because he knows when he should be the supporter and allow someone else to lead and when he should take the charge. When his work is done after taking a charge of the situation, he easily falls back and mingles with the crowd making someone else take the spotlight. He is protective of people around him and extends his shoulder to a fellow peer in time of her need. It is not the act of a friend but the empathy that one human should show another in time of distress. Even when age is against him, his rationalized mental attitude makes his adversaries intimidated by the way he carries himself. It is then when he truly shines. Once the situation passes, he is this soft spoken reserved guy that every teacher in the college adores. The transition is remarkable and highly calculated.
So what makes an alpha-male like him trip?
An alpha-female.
Someone who is loud when she talks about her favorite fictional character, who wears plethora of colors making rainbow look dull and bland, who talks mile a minute where people have problem distinguishing between bullshit and words of some importance and someone who can create quite the ruckus when she decides to be annoying.
Nupur.
It is impossible for anyone to psychoanalyze what she is. It is also impossible to figure out what she is going to do or say next. People say that she is a bundle of surprise and has a wicked sense of humor.
She has an attitude which screams "individuality" and she wears it on her sleeve for everyone to see. She is comfortable under a spot light and rarely seen in dull or offbeat colors. She comes off as vibrant and perpetually energetic which at times is too much to handle for her sister.
It is relatively unknown who or what her mother was but she is the mother like figure for her younger sister. Irrespective of the fact that Gunjan is probably more mature for her age and definitely more than Nupur herself, Nupur still treats her like a child and advices her as per her capability. At times she shows her helplessness when she feels that she is incapable to advice for her sister. She continually prods her sister to mingle with society and their peers. Her belief is that social interaction and being a part of that society is very important for survival.
She migrates to new city with big dreams and a positive attitude. Perhaps for her energetic attitude, the small town in which she lived was mildly claustrophobic for her. It wasn't as if she disliked her town, but it was more in terms of the exposure that she craved for but which severely lacked in that small town. Nupur believes that living in the city would give her a ticket to the freedom to explore things that she had always watched in screen or read in her magazines. Her obsession towards cinema might also be an imposing characteristic for her enthusiastic move. When she comes to the city, she carries her charisma which is cherished and worshiped by the men of small town. She naively believes that the same trend would continue even in the new place where her peers have already established themselves in a sophisticated college hierarchy; not to mention the attitude of the demography is vastly different from hers.
To put it mildly, she is completely broken on the first day of her college. This is where one of her characteristic trait becomes hazy. Is she is innocent in believing that people are always good or it's the naivety that is imbibed in her to make her believe that people are generally good all the time. She recovers from her disastrous first day by revamping her physical profile to suit her new peer group and perhaps fitting right into the clique which her cousin belongs to. Though she is teased and taunted, she puts on a brave faade and carries herself with the confidence which not many girls would possess. She never realizes that it is this strength, this confidence that she has in herself which makes her stand out in a group of girls and not her beauty.
When she looks at a mirror, she sees her reflection with a pride and rarely looks for flaws. It is not her vanity to seek perfection but it's the respect she has for herself and the image that she portrays to people.
She is highly attracted to the idea of ideal love which is mostly borrowed from literature or cinemas. Though admired all through her short life by boys and men, she never really has experienced love and she waits for her dream man to be something similar to that of the fictional character that she admires so much. Her craziness emerges from a part of the head which seems to be stuck in a cloud of fantasy and the one which rarely connects with reality. Of course her sister at times tries to correct her, but even Gunjan knows that it's a lost cause to get that part of Nupur's head out of that star-struck cloud.
She has a mild vindictive streak which though not very prominent yet present and few unfortunate ones around her are tested to that. She wholeheartedly believes and accepts that she is not as smart as her younger sister. It doesn't really hurt her ego when she asks her sister to help her with assignments and projects.
She has a very strong stubborn streak and always rises up to a posed challenge. Even when she knows that her smartness is no match for the college topper, she still challenges him to a dare; a dare to beat him on his own turf. It is only then that one realizes that a challenge that could hurt her ego or a challenge to prove someone wrong were the only things that could bring her out of semi-crazy state and show her intelligence, smartness and what a hardworking individual she can be. Once the work is done and she has beaten the competition, it is back to square one which often makes her friends and peers wonder alike, if she has multiple personality.
Small things make her irate in anger and microscopic things elate her. It is hard to keep up with her non-stop rant with topics changing on millisecond basis.
She is that true alpha female who makes her mark by getting beaten in the game at first and then rises to her true potential by her own individuality. So what makes this girl with a gift of gab stutter?
It takes a man with a gift of words to annoy her to the extent that it renders her speechless ' Mayank.
It's in rule of nature that when the opposites attract, for example in a chemical reaction, there is an amount of heat (sometimes heat gets absorbed) and a new product is created as a residue. The individual elements participating in this reaction contribute their own characteristics to the newly created product and sometimes they intertwine with the other element to such an extent that one might think that the individual characteristics are completely lost. When this new product is subjected to tests under stressful conditions, these individual characteristics shine out more brilliantly because they now have the support of another element to fall back to. They are together yet they are different. They are intertwined yet they are individualistic. It's impossible to separate yet contrast is blatantly obvious.
Mayur.
There are a hundred reason for them to be together and few hundred for them not to. Is it because behind their respective exterior, their fundamental beliefs in life are same?
Perhaps. Maybe. Possibly.
Perhaps it was that small dimple on his right cheek which looked like faint shadow made her mesmerized.
Perhaps it was because she told him what was in her mind quite honestly and never failed to call on his point of view.
Perhaps it was the tact he possessed which periodically rendered her speechless.
Perhaps it was the way in which her insisting rating made him forget everything and stutter a response which was mostly wrong.
Perhaps it was the way in which he always made her feel conflicted; should she kiss his dimple or poke him in the eye?
Perhaps it was because she irritated him enough to make him snap at her and made him smile inwardly when she openly praised him.
Perhaps it was because of the protective streak he possessed for people around him. It was refreshing for her when it was extended to her as she was always the eldest back home and took care of her sister and father.
Perhaps it was because she questioned his every move, his every decision but in the end she gave in to his words not because he pushed it because she realized that he was right.
Perhaps it was in the way he showed respect and adoration towards his mother which never faltered even if she was in the same room as them.
Perhaps it was because she was a younger reflection of his mother and secretly loved it when they ganged up against him.
Perhaps it was because he had every tiny milestone of his life pre-calculated and the way in which he managed to include her in.
Perhaps it was because she saw him not as a part of her future but as her future itself.
Perhaps it was because he always wanted to spend time in reading but sometimes gave up for spending few extra minutes with her making lamest of the lame excuses.
Perhaps it was in the way she showed her happiness and glee and the way she wore her emotions on her face that he gave into her arguments so that her smile wouldn't slip.
Perhaps it was because he could tease her with a straight face and get away with it.
Perhaps it was because he knew that she enjoyed the way he teased her and any onlooker would have confused that to mild flirting.
Perhaps it was in the way he cared about people whom he considered as friends, her sister included.
Perhaps it was because she gave everyone a benefit of doubt before dismissing them of their proclaimed capabilities.
Perhaps it was in the way he tolerated her passion for fictional characters.
Perhaps it was in her passion for everything; he included.
Perhaps it was in the way in which he didn't cut her slack even when he knew that she was at fault.
Perhaps it was the way she apologized to him looking straight in the eye whenever she felt that she had misunderstood him.
Perhaps it was because she realized that her "ideal man" didn't have any flaws and living with that ideal man would be like living in a happy dream which she had dreamed million times before. However being with this guy would be like being in action cinema where in the protagonists didn't know when an adventure began and when it would end. Given the nature of her spontaneity, she would pick up adventure over monotony any day. There was never one boring moment with him.
Perhaps it was because he realized that there was never a boring moment with her hovering around him and after a few weeks of spending time with her, it was obvious that he didn't want it any other way.
Perhaps it was because he always challenged her intelligence and smartness with twisted logic and areas of reasoning which she never knew existed.
Perhaps it was because she threw him out of loop when she asked him a rhetorical question which he still tried to answer but failed spectacularly.
Perhaps it was because there was underlying endearing adoration when he treated like a little girl who was lost in a world of grown adults.
Perhaps it was because she always fell back to him whenever she felt that she needed some help and made him feel like a superhero around her.
Perhaps it was because he stared at her openly when she had taken exceptional care to look good.
Perhaps it was because she took care to look exceptionally good because he liked it.
Perhaps it was because he challenged her to do better than what she thought she was.
Perhaps it was in the way she called up on his arrogance, his forthrightly attitude and taught him to be forgiving and more understanding.
Perhaps it was because his passion for every little thing he did started rubbing off on her.
Perhaps it was the way in which she made him loosen up and participate in things which he never really cared for before.
Perhaps it was because she realized that behind his clinical faade lay a soft spoken gentle guy who respected her even with all the dichotomies she posed.
Perhaps it was because he knew that beneath her over confident and bright exterior lay an insecure yet smart small town girl.
Perhaps.
Perhaps it's all these reasons and perhaps there are more than these. It will be never known the exact reason, the exact reaction as to why they are together at all.
Yes, they are opposites. Yes, they are different from one another. In each pair of statements mentioned above, the first is a dichotomy of the next. That's how they are.
Yin and Yang.
It's in the nature of opposite co-exists, but never at the same time. They always come one after the other, but never together. Even if they do manage to exist independently, they never reached a point after a threshold was reached. Night always follows the day. It's the rule of nature to not have opposites exist together sharing same space at a given point of time. Even two chemicals that attract each other, like acid and alkali, cannot exist with each other.
However two opposite chemicals are mixed, there is heat, there is light, there are fireworks and then there is a new identity of the fresh product; all original ingredients would have come together, mutating their individuality to create something new; like salt or like dawn or like dusk or like horizon or like a dream or a lot like love or something like them.
A small miracle.
~Sookie.
Debate Mansion
