The Heroines…

To talk of books is brilliant. My friends tease me that I might run out of space for the books I buy to read. That doesn’t really stop me from buying those books that appeal to me a lot.

Day 16 – Favorite Female Character

The first character I remember reading is Minnie Mouse. So Minnie stays a favorite female character always. Then there’s Nancy Drew, Grauben from Journey to the Center of the Earth, Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief, Sue Grafton’s ABC heroine Kinsey Millhone and more recently, Godavari from Rasana Atreya’s The Temple is Not My Father.

But when the talk is of female characters that are memorable, the two that spring to mind are from the same book. The book is one that I first read years back; over the years, I have read it a few times more. When the story is as moving, and as traumatizing, as A Thousand Splendid Suns, you would feel that the book’s heroines, Mariam and Laila are absolutely memorable.

A lot of things bind the two girls together in their journey. Mariam’s need for connecting with someone and her love for Laila’s daughter Aziza are the main ones I feel. The scene where she coddles Aziza is very memorable. Even to an extent, Rasheed’s abusive nature is what unites the two, after Mariam initially resents Laila. And that last line in the book.

(23rd November 2014)

Vinay Leo R.

Poetry & writing to me are to me, a breath of fresh air in a life that is sometimes covered by the smoke of sorrow or self doubt. They also become the sweets I share to celebrate when life offers me a reason to. But most of all, they are to me, my life. For each word I write is a piece of my heart, a thought that just had to find its way into the world.