Can I choose to be part Elizabeth Bennet, part Jo March, and also some bits of Skeeter from ‘The Help’? English classics have always been close to my heart and ‘Little Women’ was one of the first books I read growing up. For an impressionable young girl with two sisters and many female friends, the book called out to me for all the right reasons. I love that she wanted to write and that she not only wanted a career that was different for that time but also pursued it. To my younger self, Elizabeth was a confident person who knew herself very well. I think the recurring themes – sisterhood and female empowerment – are also what draw me to these characters. Jo and Elizabeth could well be the first role models in my life. They may have their faults but I could have done much worse! Skeeter is relatively new because I read ‘The Help’ only this year. I could only picture Emma Stone’s face as I read the book but the book Skeeter felt wonderfully brave and emphatic to me. I think I’m also envious that she wrote this great book. And, I also want to be Sherlock Holmes for all the apparent reasons.
Pramila Rai
Correspondent, Republica
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I loved Bertie because he didn’t have to think at all. He was all impulse. And what luxury to have a valet who does all the thinking for you! I wished I could be as carefree as Bertie and like him get to meet all the beautiful women in the world. Back in my high-school days, no one wove my dream universe better than Wodehouse and no single fictional character captured my imagination like “What ho!” Bertie.
Biswas Baral
Op-ed editor, Republica
I just realized that deciding on my favorite character is far, far more heartbreaking than choosing a favorite book. So after staying up really late at night to make peace with many of my fictional friends, I’ve decided to name Atticus Finch as that one character I wish I could be.
While reading Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, I remember admiring him for treating his children as adults and not shying away from giving honest answers to all of their questions—something I wish my own parents did. And today, after all these years of knowing him, he stands to me as a symbol of wisdom, honor, and moral conscience. Atticus is not perfect, and he has his own doubts regarding the cases he takes up as an attorney or about bringing up his children in which he has very little experience. Nonetheless, he manages to make wise decisions, and the best thing about him is that he does what he preaches, which I believe, more adults should practice doing.
Many of my friends who’ve read Lee’s second book, ‘Go Set a Watchman’, say I’ll start disliking Atticus after I read it. Well, let’s see.
Poonam Maharjan
Bureau head, GenNext, Republica
I want to be Bhishma Pitamah from Mahabharata. Mahabharata is a very special part of my life, especially because I vividly remember watching it with my family. Then I didn’t understand much of it, but now that I’ve watched it once again, I’ve come to admire Bhishma. He isn’t just someone with a good archery skill, which mattered a lot then, but he is a visionary and kind human being. It’s hard to find a man like that today. Ironic as it might seem, I admire him even more because of his Bhishma Pratigya. The steely determination fascinated me. I always thought he deserved to have a family and be happy, if he couldn’t have the crown.
Speaking of the crown, that’s another reason for why Bhishma fascinates me. I’m unsure about what I’d have done if I were his shoes (slippers) – perhaps ask my father to reconsider his decision, for I would’ve been the perfect fit for the position after all. But his abdication from the throne asserted the notion that you don’t have to be in the ‘power’ to be powerful. There are just too many things to admire about him.
Prashanti Poudyal
Junior Correspondent, Republica
