PROFILE
basic
Name: Rhea Sabarwal.
Age: Twenty-one.
Birthday: March 26, 1986.
Hometown: Mumbai, India.
occupational
Locale: New York City.
Profession: Graduate student in Physics at NYU.
Email: rhea.sabarwal@gmail.com
fairy-tale
Fairy-Tale Character: Sinbad the Sailor.
Fairy-Tale: 1001 Arabian Nights
Abilities: None. She does however have an uncanny ability to get into way more trouble than she can handle without actually realizing she's doing it.
personality
First Impression: Does she ever shut up?
The Girl: The best way to describe Rhea is as a spitfire in a small package. Vocal lessons have taught her the best ways to project, so the tiny girl has never had a problem making herself heard. This would not have been a problem had she not come with an ironclad, conservative set of beliefs, but at the moment Rhea will lecture anyone who will listen on the rapid degeneration of the ethics and morals of American society until she is physically pulled away. She doesn't mean any harm; she's simply experiencing severe culture shock, and doesn't understand why so many people don't even want to try and achieve the famous 'American Dream'. That's all Rhea wants in the end - for people to try.
Rhea's good intentions towards humanity are often masked by the shrieking and violence, as never quite learned how to debate with people without getting all riled up herself. Rhea's short fuse (which thankfully leads only to short outbursts) tends to get her in trouble more often than she can count, as she hasn't quite learned the concept of being careful about who she mouths off too. Big words, fast speech, and a thick accent make it difficult for anyone to argue against Rhea; that is, until they figure out her kryptonite - any mention of sex turns Rhea into a blushing, blubbering mess.
When it comes to guys, Rhea is more or less switched off. The girl has never been kissed and is fine with it, as she knows she'll get plenty of affection once she's married. She has no sexual drive (that she knows of), and doesn't quite understand the perpetual lust of the people she's surrounded by. The downside of Rhea's lack of sexuality is her blindness towards herself. She doesn't realize that she is a pretty little thing, and that not all of the men that talk to her have intentions as clean as her own. Luckily Rhea learns from her mistakes, and is a lot more careful now about who exactly she spends her time with.
In the end, Rhea's ability to learn is her most redeeming quality. Sure, she comes with strong opinions about how life should be lived, but if someone can make a sound argument against her or show her why she might be wrong, Rhea is willing to change her mind and grow. Being confident enough to admit your hypothesis might not have been correct when the evidence proves otherwise is the mark of a good scientist, and Rhea Sabarwal is exactly that.
The Tale: Rhea's connection to Sinbad is closer than she would like to admit. She believes that he has almost nothing to do with the way she lives her life, but the truth of the matter is that he slips through when she's least aware. Both Sinbad and Rhea have their hearts in the right places despite their strange ways of showing it. Sinbad had a tendency to attract trouble to himself in droves, and the same remains true for Rhea. But fortune favored Sinbad when he thought all was lost, and although Rhea credits her own intelligence and her wonderful friends for helping her get out of every scrape, the truth remains that there is often something entirely unbelievable about her extremely good luck.
background
Parents: Rajesh and Aarti Sabarwal.
Sibling(s): Raj Sabarwal.
History: Rajesh Sabarwal was wed to Aarti Mehta two weeks after her nineteenth birthday. They had both come from loving families and good financial backgrounds, and settled into a comfortable routine despite not really knowing each other. He was kind to her as she adjusted into an unknown house with a mostly unknown man, and she supported his dream of starting his own business from scratch, despite knowing the hardship it could potentially put them through. Twenty-five years later, Rajesh had proven his mettle by becoming one of the primary industrial giants in the Indian business market. Success had rewarded him for all of his hard work, as he had risen from being a nobody to a virtual celebrity in a short amount of time.
As Rajesh and Aarti's only daughter, Rhea Sabarwal was born into a lifestyle the average Indian can only dream of. The apple of both her parents' and her brother's eye, no wish of hers ever remained unfulfilled. Rhea was always as bright as she was pretty, which is why she attended on the best educational institutions Mumbai had to offer. Even though Rhea would inherit an equal share of her father's property, it was common knowledge that Raj would be the one running the industries after her father. This meant that Rhea had both the freedom and opportunity to pursue a field of her choosing (as long as it was respectable enough) - which in this case was physics.
Rhea's love for physics stemmed from her love for sound. Growing up, Rhea was encouraged to take as many extra-curricular lessons as possible, and after going through Art, Karate, Piano, Tabla, Sitar, and Bharat Natyam, she finally reached Singing. Now Rhea might have been a thorough brainiac in school, but her aptitude for languages and sciences had nothing on her natural ability to sing. Rhea was good enough to perform (and often did at school functions, family events and the like), and secretly dreamed of playback singing for Bollywood films as a child. But as she grew older, Rhea realized that her dream wasn't big or good enough for Rajesh Sabarwal's daughter, and pushed it away to pursue something more appropriate to her station. Her fascination with acoustics became a career, and singing and music were relegated to the status of hobbies. Rhea doesn't broadcast her singing talent as it tends to bring on difficult questions about career choices that she doesn't like to answer. So she sings when she's alone.
Taledom came to Rhea right after she had graduated high school. She had always loved reading stories as a child, and 1001 Arabian Nights had been her favorite from the start. Rhea used to make her brother read her the adventures of Sinbad to the point where she had the wording memorized, all because she felt a strange affinity for the character and his knack of getting in trouble. It wasn't until the seventeen year-old had a particularly vivid dream about her childhood hero that she realized she was the guy. Rhea was a realist though, and didn't put much stock in the theory until she was visited by a man named Edward - the head librarian of Arabic Tales from America. He gave her an empty journal called a 'compendium' that she could use to talk to other tales over great distances. Rhea made a few acquaintances here and there through the journal, but for the most part lived a life that didn't have room for fantasy. A few months after getting her Compendium, Rhea realized that there was no real use for a book that communicated with people thousands of miles away. The journal was put away in a box at the back of her closet to gather dust, while Rhea attended to more important things.
The biggest decision of Rhea's life was made for her when she was still in the womb. An ultrasound had shown Rajesh and Aarti the sex of the fetus, and overjoyed, they went to share the news with their best friends, the Trivedis. The men joked about how the unborn Sabarwal girl would be the perfect match for year-old Arush, as she would allow the best friends to finally become samdhis (in-laws), cementing friendship into family. But what started off as a joke turned into Rhea's reality, as she was told with whom her future lay before she even understood the concept of marriage.
Despite her early betrothal, Rhea doesn't begrudge her parents though - she knows that had Arush grown into any man except the caring, wonderful one that he is, her parents would allow her to choose another one without a second thought. The Sabarwals want their daughter to be happy for the rest of her life, and they believe Arush would be the perfect man to take care of her. Having grown up playing with the guy her entire life, Rhea can't really disagree. Sure, there isn't any love between them, but Rhea knows 'love' can come after marriage (like in the case of her parents), and is certain she would have a good life with Arush anyway. Had she been more of a romantic, Rhea would see the flaws in her argument, but as she doesn't really believe in the concept of love (at least the one that makes you do crazy things), she's quite content the way she is.
The way Rhea looks at it, being promised to another man has its perks. Arush has been studying in England since he left high school, which gives Rhea more freedom than the average Indian girl. Her parents even agreed to let her go pursue her Masters' degree at NYU, because they knew their daughter's future was secure. Now that she's in America, she can finally break out that dusty compendium, and see what the Americans have been up to while she wasn't looking.
appearance
Height: Five foot two.
Weight: 100 lbs. She's a tiny little thing.
Hair: Black.
Eyes: Brown.
Manner of Speech: Intellectual, but highly accented. When she's excited or nervous, she tends to talk at speeds which make it impossible for most Americans to understand what she is saying.
romantic
Status: Promised (Arranged, thank you very much).
Orientation: Heterosexual.
astrology
Sign: Aries.
Attributes: Adventurous and energetic. Pioneering and courageous. Enthusiastic and confident. Dynamic and quick-witted.
ooc
Portrayed By: Amrita Rao.
Player: Puja.
Disclaimer: I am not Amrita Rao, and I certainly didn't write 1001 Arabian Nights. I do own this character though, so don't steal it unless you enjoy having snarky gnomes set on your ass.
fairlytales