So this is Augustus Fink-Nottle- A wodehousian character - goofy, tee- totaller, looks like a fish with spectacles. 
My illustration is of him- before he gives a hilarious speech at Market Snodsbury grammar school -after his drink has been spiked well meaningly to give him courage (until now the strongest he has had is orange juice) . Bertie Wooster describes him thus -

At the beginning of the address, Gussie had subsided into a sort of daydream,
with his mouth hanging open. About half-way through, faint signs of life had
begun to show. And for the last few minutes he had been trying to cross one
leg over the other and failing and having another shot and failing again. But
only now did he exhibit any real animation. He sat up with a jerk.
#illustration #wodehouse #inktober #inktober2017#spinkbottle #righthojeeves #fictionalfolk

Sakura from #kafkaontheshore , #murakami 
Our fifteen year old hero who has run away from home meets Sakura while travelling by bus. 'Broad forehead', 'freckled', 'pointy eared' , dressed in a 'stripe crew neck' and 'cream-colored' skirt. (I took some liberty here). - I found her atypical features interesting to illustrate. I think i will do atleast one more character from this book.#inktober #inktober2017 #illustration#fictionalfolk

Day #5- #Naganandhi from #sivakamiyinsabatham-by #kalkikrishnamoorthy -Historical fiction set around the 6th century- set against the backdrop of the feuding #pallavas and #chalukyas . Naganandhi is an ascetic- a dark character with many shades of grey. Posesses many poisonous daggers and a toxic nail (nail- the ones on the fingers) that can kill. 

#motuchand and #ishaqkhan from #asuitableboy(a 1000 page book deserves atleast 4 characters no?)- Not central characters, but they still add a lot of texture and history to the story- these two play the Tabla and saarangi for #saeedabai a famous courtesan in #Bramhapur. 
While thier light hearted bickering adds some comic element, they represent the shared music heritage of two communities that often have a edgy,tense relationship. While Motu Chand- a hearty father of four places the divine music his tabla makes above the taboo of touching the skin of a dead animal - that is the surface of Tabla; Ishaq Khan disregards the notions held by some of his community that instrumental music is sacrilege- and devotes much of his waking hours to rigorous riyaaz. #inktober #inktober2017#illustration #fictionalfolk

Kainene from #chimamandingozeadiche 's#halfayellowsun .
Set in the late 60's before and during The Nigerian civil war- Kainene is the 'ugly twin' daughter of an affluent nigerian business magnate. 'Tall', 'skinny' , 'androgynous' and 'distant' - wearing 'brazenly red lipstick' and a 'gaudy necklace- She bewtiches Richard Churchill when he sees her for the first time at a party, smoking, blowing perfect circles.
Needless to say 'Beauty standards' are fickle and a product of an utter lack of imagination and a limited vocabulary. #inktober #inktober2017#illustration #fictionalfolk #smokingisnotgoodok#day9

'Vincent' the waiter from #ghacharghochar by#vivekshanbhag , translated by #srinathperur.
Vincent knows all, he is a waiter at a cafe the narrator of this book frequents and is often engaged by the narrator in small talk in the hope of pearls of his wisdow. Our narrator suspects that Vincent might just be god. 'He is a tall dark fellow, a little over middle age,but strong withour a hint of a belly. He wears a white uniform against which its impossible not to notice an extravagant red cumerbund. On his head is a white turban , its tuft sticking out like Krishna's peacock feather. I can't help feeling when Vincent is around- serving coffee, pouring beer at a practised angle, betraying the faintest smiles as a patron affectedly applies knife and fork to a cutlet- that he can take us all in with a single glance. By now i suspect he knows the regulars better than they know themselves'
#illustration #inktober #inktober2017 #fictionalfolk#day7

Saeeda Bai Firozabadi from #vikramseth's#asuitableboy . Set in post independence India of the 50s- Saeeda Bai is a 35 year old courtesan - with a golden voice. Her diamonds and gold gifted by her many patrons shimmer when she moves, but her bangles are always glass (Firozabad is a centre for glass making). 'She was no more than pleasing looking, but she had all the airs of the distinguished courtesan - the small marks of favor, the tilt of the head, the flash of nosepin, a delightful mixture of directness and circuirtousness in her attentions to those who she was attracted by, a knowledge of Urdu poetry ..................but more than all this, and more than her clothes and jewels and her exceptional natural talent and musical training, was a touch of heartache im her voice'
#inktober #inktober2017 #ink #illustration#fictionalfolk

#ayyanmani from #seriousmen. Ayyan is a clerk at a premier science institution.Ayyan is a bitter man, he is also an extremely intelligent man. He loathes those privileged by caste or class. He wants to -by hook or crook -secure a future for his family away from the chawl that he inhabits, and show the world the genius of his son.
He takes up the responsibility of putting up the 'the thought for the day' on a blackboard at his institution. He peppers these periodically with his own versions which deride upper caste establishments and attributes them to celebrities. Most often no on really notices.

‘Uma’ a little girl of 9 in #rabindranathtagore’s really short story ‘excercise book’ has been married off to Pyarimohan. ( it was in those times of child marriage) . Uma Knows to write, and has carried with her an ‘excercise book’ in which she would write small childish confessions. Pyarimohan- like the majority of people in his time-doesn’t think women should read and write and writes pompous articles emphasising the same.Uma opens her notebook secretly once to jot down the song of a #baul singer she hears - when her sisters-in-law ( though Tagore doesn’t say- given the information of child marriage in that period and the affection with which he alludes to them- they must be little girls) Tilakamanjari, Anagamanjari and Kanakamanjari , sneak a peek into her room in a mixture of shock and amusement as they see her do the in-permissible - they later go and tell their ‘Dada’ of her transgression.
I bough this book of short stories exactly 11 years ago when traveling from Kolkata to my college in Kanpur . Escapist that I was I didn’t want to read anything that made me remotely uncomfortable - reading about all these social evils in an empty compartment at dusk made me miserable. Re-visiting them now, I realise I failed to notice Tagore’s clever humour and also how visual his simple descriptions are 

#day28 features a phantom presence from#mirajacob’s #sleepwalkersguidetodancingwiththestars.Ammachi’ Thomas Eapen’s dead mother- who mysteriously appears in his porch at his house in #newmexico- visible solely to him, he is often seen having conversations with the walls much to his wife’s horror. One is not sure if Thomas is hallucinating or there is a suggestion of the paranormal - because Ammachi has manifested in his daughter’s photograph after she has died. 

#sivakaami from #sivakaamiyinsabadham by#kalkikrishnamoorthy.
It is is only fitting that #day31 and the last of my#inktober posts finish with some intense #Tamilmelodrama.
Sivakaami is a famed dancer and the daughter of a legendary sculptor in Mahendra Pallavar’s kingdom . (6th-7th century) .
She is a dignified and proud woman, aware of her talent and ability. Sivakaami and#narasimhapallavar (crown prince) are in love with each other. The novel spans over a decade and is set against the historic wars between the pallavas and chalukyas. Eventually (at the end of the book) after a series of dramatic events Sivakaami finds herself at the sanctum of the #ekaambareshwarartemple , this time sivakaami is a changed woman. She dances in abandon not for an audience but for the lord of dance himself- Nataraja.