Tagged............

My Favorite Literary Characters.

Rajani has tagged me to write about my favorite literary characters. I am not much into reading these days but do have a small list.

Howard Roark- The highly independent minded architect cum hero of Ian Rand’s ‘The Fountainhead.’ Can’t think of anyone quite like him. Hats off to Ian Rand for creating him.

Atticus- The sweetest father one can have is portrayed so well in Harper Lee’s ‘To kill a mocking bird.’ I read the book years after I lost my dad and found myself missing him more after I read the book and comparing his role in my life with that of Atticus in shaping his children’s lives.

Mandakini- The heroine in Maitrayee Pushpa’s book ‘Idanna mamaha’. The girl’s mother marries another man after her father’s death leaving her paternal grandmother to look after her and returns to visit her years later when she doesn’t even remember the mother’s face. She is brought up with all kinds of negative feelings about her mother. Yet the way she takes up for her would put any thinking individual to shame. At least I did not look at it that way. In this cruel world where a woman is judged at every step the balanced nature shown by Mandakini through out the story stands apart. Maitrayee Pushpa needs to be commended since Mandakini is actually her mouthpiece.

Hassan- Like Rajani I was more impressed by Hassan than Amir in the ‘Kite Runner’ by Hosseni. Such devotion and loyalty! Hard to believe. I shed a few quiet tears for Hassan and wished that he had not died in the end.

Peggoty- The plump maid in Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield who loved him soooo much. As a child I felt happy that she was there for David.

Kundavai- The Chola princess in Kalki’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan. Her intelligence, grace and administrative skills as portrayed in the story served as an inspiration to my young mind. My mother being weak sighted we had read out the story so many times to her and each time we enjoyed it as if we were reading it for the first time.

Heathcliff- I don’t mean his character in Wuthering Heights. There was a sequel written to it by a different author titled ‘Retun to Wuthering Heights’. Unfortunately I forget the name of the author. I’ll check it when I go back since I borrowed it from our college library. The justice done to the character is such that instead of hating the perpetrator of misery to the Earnshaw family you actually end up admiring him for the strength of character. I found the sequel much more interesting than the original.

There are a few others but I’ve forgotten the name of the author or the book so I stop right here.

I tag hillg’mom and Usha to carry this forward.