Sanjeev is a 33-year-old graduate from MIT, where he studied engineering. His height is nothing unusual, his cheeks carry more fat than he would like, though his build was average, and his eyelashes are long—both features he isn’t overly fond of. His parents had arranged for him to be introduced to his now wife, only four months ago. They beseeched him to marry her, and he consented. Now, moving into to a condominium with his wife, he is struggling to determine just how he feels about her. Certainly their parents had played a major role in the two of them marrying so quickly, but it was hardly arranged, and the proposal had been out of his own free will, however strongly influenced.
Sanjeev works at a firm where he has his own secretary, as well as a dozen employees working under his supervision. In fact, he is currently being considered for the position of vice-president. With such prestige surrounding his working position, and his extreme concern for how people feel about his appearance and the appearance of his house, we can assume that Sanjeev rarely dresses too casual. Further, Sanjeev likes fine music, and he enjoys reading the liner music along with it. This, as a generalization, also indicates a person of distinguished style.
From this story, much can be inferred about Sanjeev. Nearly every action and statement could be analyzed to tell us something of his psychology, but rather than this, I find it more important to point out a few of his more prominent traits:
• Pragmatism: Sanjeev doesn’t see much sense in the useless, although he is biased in his definition of what is useless from time to time. His pragmatism is seen throughout the story, but one example is when Twinkle finds the vinegar with the statue of Jesus, he doesn’t have much to say besides the obvious and logical things from his position: Check the expiration date, and throw the statue out. He isn’t interested in examining the statue for himself, nor is he excited by the unexpected acquisition of vinegar.
• Compassion: Sanjeev can certainly be cold or harsh in how he feels about things. But, when he is upset, he usually keeps his calm. For example, when he told Twinkle he was going to trash her Virgin statue, he did so very calmly, and only after he took a breath to calm himself. After he upsets Twinkle, he is so upset with himself that he actually feels physically ill.
• Precision: Sanjeev is an engineer, and the type of guy to mark unpainted spots with post-it notes. It seems safe to assume that he is a precise man.
• Calmness: As described in “Compassion,” solidified in “Tolerance.”
• Tolerance: Sanjeev is irritated greatly, and by a great number of things, but he does well at keeping his composure. At one point, a snarl from Sanjeev is described as unfamiliar.
Sanjeeev makes it very clearly known that he is not a Christian. I imagine this means he holds dearly to his Hindu faith, and it likely influences his behaviors. Still, in addition to his engineer’s mindset, I believe one thing influences his behaviors most of all: The opinions of others. There are a plethora of examples in this story where Sanjeev demonstrates concern, arguably insecurity, about how other people view him.
In an interesting contrast, he seems to feels a bit superior to others, considering himself more logical and efficient. He shows a very interesting mix of attitudes towards others from irritation to caring.
One of the most important flavors of the story is love (isn’t it always?). Sanjeev wonders about his own love for Twinkle, and the definition of love in the first place. Twinkle is beautiful, and he claims to love her, but he wonders who he is reassuring when he says, “I love you.” There are a lot of clashes between the two, even minor ones: Sanjeev want a wife that can cook an impressive meal for him and for company; Twinkle makes a meal haphazardly and isn’t even sure how much vinegar she used. Sanjeev can’t stand the “senseless” Christian artifacts cluttering up his home; Twinkle seem enchanted by them. Still, my guess is that the Sanjeev doesn’t love Twinkle, but his unconscious awareness that he is falling in love with her, but confuses and astounds him.
I could sift a great deal of other things out of this story, but I won’t. The most difficult part of this was keeping it small. I can make assumptions about nearly every sentence here, but that would result in a blog significantly longer than the story itself, and that doesn’t seem prudent.
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