Marriage Unarranged

Happy Fictional Father’s Day!

Ritu

As writers, we create characters. And for the most part, those characters are human. They have families too.

Today, I want to celebrate the fathers that I have shaped, within my writing.

When I began writing Marriage Unarranged, I knew there would be a father or two in the book. After all, Aashi is a very family orientated girl, and hers would be a key character.

My characters, generally aren’t based on a specific person, but there may be different elements of people I’ve encountered along the way that make their way into the personailities I create.

Mohinder, Aashi’s father, or Daddy-ji, as his children lovingly call him, is heavily based upon my own dad. There are differences, but the essence of my Pops is embedded within this character.

I loved writing him, and as the book grew, so did his part in it. Mohinder was the elder voice of reason. He was the calm, understanding parent, compared to the more traditional, and often fraught Harjit, a typical Indian immigrant mum.

Ravi’s father, Harpal, is a a rather hen-pecked individual, who is used to his wife Gurmeet, taking over everything. I felt that there needed to be a character who felt the shame of his son’s dishonesty. Had Aashi married into this family, I am sure he would have been a fantastic father-in-law.

Right now, I am creating a rather different father figure, within book two. One who has tunnel vision where his children are concerned. Less emotional, more concerned with his business and how his family come across to the world. Dev Tagore is the father of Milan, an up and coming fashion designer in Delhi. He’ss quite hard for me to write, as he is nothing like the father I have had, and one I wouldn’t wish upon any child. But fathers like that do exist. Here’s hoping he sorts himself out by the end of the book!

So, there you have some of my fictional fathers. I’m sure, in my created world, they are all celebrating father’s day in their own ways.

Is there any literary father that has stayed with you, in any books you’ve read?

If you want to meet Mohinder, as well as many other colourful characters, click here to check out Marriage Unarranged.

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Published by Ritu

A writer and blogger who teaches, and is a wife and mother too. Enjoy my ramblings on life, love and literature. 💖

34 thoughts on “Happy Fictional Father’s Day!”

  1. Pingback: Happy Fictional Father’s Day! – Ritu Bhathal | But I Smile Anyway...

  3. I always loved Mr. Bennett in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. He was a good father to all of his girls in spite of the fact they got on his nerves. She gave him some great lines! Happy Father’s Day to your husband and dad!

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  10. Ritu, the great Travel Writer Paul Theroux has also written many great novels, like “Saint Jack”, Hotel Honolulu” and of course his most famous “The Mosquito Coast”, about a father’s effort to save his children by abandoning society and starting a life in the Amazon!

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      2. Aw! i do love Aashi. She is a bit like me, but I an not as naive as her, with a sprinkling of Kiran in there too!

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  12. Your characters sound interesting and even more is the amount of thought you put into each of them.
    I’ve been on a reading spree of books by writers of colour and so the only dad who springs to mind is Atticus. More recently, my favourite is James Potter, not alive yet so much a part of Harry’s life.

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