Imran Khan
Jai Singh Rathore (‘Rats’)
Hailing from the town of Ranjhore in Rajasthan, Jai Singh Rathore is everything a Rathore from Ranjhore is not supposed to be – pleasant, warm, funny, kind, sensitive and pathologically non-violent.
Jai’s father passed away when he was still an infant, and he has been brought up by his mother Savitri. The few years she endured as the bahu of a Rajput joint-family remain a nauseating memory for Jai’s mother. After her husband passed away, Savitri ran away from this insane clan and came to Mumbai, where she now works as a professional social worker struggling with human rights issues.
Savitri’s upbringing has ensured that Jai is the most unlikely Rathore either side of the Aravallis. Her staunch belief is that Indian mothers are responsible for their sons turning out to be such jerks – so she has never pampered Jai. Everything – from preparing breakfast to doing the laundry – Jai does himself. They share a great friendship, but also completely respect each other’s space.
The most important thing in Jai’s life is Aditi. They connected the first day they met, and nobody has ever seen them apart since. When they are not together, they are on the phone. And so, to friends and family, it is simply a question of time before the two get married.
Genelia Aditi (‘Meow’) Aditi had once – in a fit of honesty – admitted to Jai that as a child, she had been teased ‘Kali Billi’ by her neighbourhood friends. Jai upgrades this to ‘Meow’ and the name sticks. While Aditi will murder anyone else who tries calling her Meow, she also feels a flinch if anyone else – especially another woman – calls Jai ‘Rats’.
Aditi is high on life. She loves everything to do with life and living. She laughs easy, cries easy, gets into scraps, adopts stray kittens, will try everything at least once and loves a good scrap. In spite of all this, she is not exactly a tomboy. She dresses with a stylish disregard for style. She is quite attractive – the only problem is that she intimidates men too much for them to do anything about it.
An interaction with Aditi is exhausting. A friendship just barely possible. An affair would be murder. And the world wonders how Jai survives.
But no one doubts this – should someone else trouble or hurt Jai, that person would have made a vicious, vengeful and foul-mouthed enemy for life!
Karan
Ravindran (‘Rotlu’)
’Rotlu’, as the name suggests, is the whiner of the group. Show him a silver lining and Rotlu will find you a dark cloud. Show him a light at the end of the tunnel and he’ll think it’s a train – never mind that there are no tracks.
The saving grace – Rotlu is the first person to admit that he is a pessimist. He thrives on sympathy. He knows he whines. He knows he cribs and complains and that sometimes he tries their patience. But the thing that makes Rotlu special is that his love and friendship know no bounds. He will do anything for a friend.
Especially for Aditi, whom he secretly pines for.
Alishka
Sandhya (‘Bombs’)
’Bombs’ is slow on the uptake. If she was any slower, she would be backward on the uptake. As Aditi once remarks, her plane needs two runways to take off.
Bombs can drive you insane with her naïveté and innocence. She wears Playboy “Bunny” T-shirts and accessories because she thinks rabbits are cute. She is always the last to laugh at a joke – often without quite getting it. She also thinks it’s very funny that they call her Bombs. Her capacity to miss compliments or smile casually over flattery makes her a pretty frustrating girl to woo, second only to Aditi.
Bombs is in love with Jai. So obviously, she doesn’t like Aditi too much. Largely because she won’t let Bombs call him Rats. But also because she is always the center of attention – exactly where Bombs wants to be.
Nirav
Jignesh Patel (‘Jiggy’)
’Jiggy’ is a complete miser. A rich Gujju boy with a taste for all things loud and colourful, he is constantly complaining about being broke and hates paying for anything.
Jiggy always forgets birthdays but hates anyone forgetting his – he will start reminding people a week in advance on a daily basis, along with “subtle” hints as to what gifts he might like to receive.
However, his friends have figured him out and there is very little sympathy extended towards Jiggy for his perpetual “poverty”. The thing that Jiggy hates most is that he is automatically expected to pay for Rotlu, and he hates Rotlu for it. However, Rotlu is such a masochist that he makes himself feel terrible about this before Jiggy can even start, and sometimes Jiggy is happy to pay just to have Rotlu shut up.
For some unfathomable reason, Jiggy gets very upset when he hears about someone getting an American visa.
Sugandha
Shaleen
Shaleen is so normal; you wonder what she is doing with this lot. She is clever, perceptive, warm, and somehow free of the hormonal angst that seems to characterise the others’ lives.
She is very, very close to Aditi; they often stay over with each other and talk long into the night. The only reason Aditi doesn’t share all her secrets with her is that Aditi has no secrets. In any case, it is very difficult to keep a secret from Shaleen. She often sees things that others have missed, and can see the course friendships and relationships will take.
The coolest girl in college, she also adores Jiggy and his silliness for some reason – presumably a premature maternal instinct.
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