A Chat with the Characters from You Can’t Fight A Royal Attraction

Here’s the interview of Rihaan and Saira I did at a guest post…

Today I have Rihaan and Saira for an interview here at b00k r3vi3ws blog. Thanks, Debdutta, for the center stage and a chance to host my well loved characters. Thanks too, for the nice tea and thoughtfully provided chocolate cake. Looks yummy and so totally hard to resist while I wait for them to arrive. Ah, the wait wasn’t long! Here is Saira!

 (Saira walks in.) 

Saira: Hi Ruchi, great to see you.

Me: Hi Saira, wonderful to see you as well and looking fab as usual. Orange and black, what a nice combo and I love the pleated chiffon skirt!
Saira: Thank you! Well, you know me (smiles and winks) Clothes are my thing.
Me: Where’s Rihaan? Would you like tea while we wait? (Pours and hands her the teacup)
Saira: (accepts) Thanks, I guess it’s early for cocktails yet. (grins) Rihaan? He’s still working on his story. You know what he’s like – well of course you do! You’re to blame for his tendency to get lost in the story he’s creating. Do you realize how much trouble it is? Last Sunday he walked out of Aragham’s birthday party that we were attending at Vishakha’s and I had to chase him down to the beach where he was working out his plot twists. And he got me thinking it out too, so we nearly missed the cutting of the cake! 
Me: Oh oh that is bad. But look here, you didn’t complain when he acted absentminded the last time he was thinking about his script? (widens eyes innocently)
Saira (Blushes) Now that was…what can I say…kinda cute! And don’t make it sound so scandalous because you know it wasn’t. It wasn’t anything it shouldn’t be!  Me: Mmm, do I sense a note of accusation in that? 

(Rihaan comes in at that moment.) 

Me: Hi Rihaan!
Rihaan (smiles a rakishly attractive smile): Hi Ruchi! (Leans over to peck Saira and takes a seat): I see you’ve started without me? When the man is away, the ladies love to get all chatty! 

Me: Is that even a phrase? I’ve never heard of it. 

Rihaan: I can create phrases. It’s my job after all. Working on words, with words and through words. (Tips imaginary hat in an olde worlde gesture and gives another heart stopping smile.)

Me (in an aside to Saira): I can understand how you fell for him. Oh those sherry eyes! 

Saira: (whispers back.) Pure wine and as heady in their magic. You have put me in trouble, haven’t you? (sighs)

Me:I guess I totally have. (Clears throat and says more normally) So shall we start, Rihaan?

Rihaan: All set Ruchi. Though I have trouble understanding why you’re interviewing your own characters. You’re supposed to know us through and through and inside out. Isn’t that how it goes? 

Me: Know you? You particularly? That’s something like climbing Mount Abu. You aren’t that easy to decipher, my dear Rihaan. Not easy at all. You think it was easy to figure out and write what you were all about? Let me tell you it was like trying to peel the cover from the maize seed or trying to break into a chakravyoh out of the epic Mahabharata or delve into the deepest ocean…!!

Rihaan: I get the picture. (Holds up his hands) My apologies. I really had no idea I was being tough.

Me: Oh I forgave you when you finally began to talk. Anyway the purpose isn’t for me to know you but to get you acquainted with the readers.    

Rihaan: Go on then. What do you want to ask? 

Me: How do you feel about getting to know her? 

Rihaan: Well she’s, you know, spicy, quirky, fun to be with. It’s been a topsy-turvy ride trying to figure out what I felt for her and then it had just begun. But now looking back the uncertainty was all trivial. What matters is now. I feel my life totally changed knowing her. (Looks across at Saira with such feeling that I start to blink emotionally) 

Me: Oh Rihaan! (Dabs eyes.) And Saira? What do you say about your life before Rihaan?

Saira: I was lost, you know. I mean I knew myself and I’ve stood up for my beliefs. But then a part of me, the loving part, had been through a frightful experience. I’d forgotten how to trust. Even distrusted my own decisions. Meeting Rihaan wasn’t problem solving. Far from it. When you’re determined not to open your heart and then you find the doors are cracking up… (Smiles back at Rihaan.) Well, suffice to say I led him quite a dance. Yes, I acknowledge it!
Read the rest here