Full Name: Jaswinder Jakkamsetti [Jus-WIN-der JAW-come-SET-tea]
Nickname(s): His nickname is spelt "Jas" when written, but pronounced "Jazz" when said by others. This nickname stems from difficulty with pronouncing Jas' name correctly, but happens to work well with his occupation.
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Birthday: 21 June 1969
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Nationality: Indian
Religion: Hinduism
City or Town of Birth: Damoh, India
Languages Spoken: Hindi, English
Native Language: Hindi
Relationship Status: Married

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 180
Figure/Build: Average (Not fit, but not skinny or fat either)
Hair Colour: Black
Hair Style: Matted, Banged
Eye Colour: Black
Skin Colour: Dark brown
Scars/Tattoos/Distinguishing Marks: A scar along his neck from a suicide attempt. He doesn't have a tattoo because he doesn't think people should mess with their body like that [his wife has a tattoo, incidentally].
Piercings: N/A

HEALTH:
Do they smoke? Did they use to?: No, never
Do they drink? Did they use to?: No, never
Addictions: gummy bear vitamins
Allergies: Beef and Cow's milk, funnily enough.
Any physical ailments/illnesses/disabilities: Not presently, no.
Any medication regularly taken: gummy bear vitamins; calcium supplements; anxiety medication
PERSONALITY
Personality: Jas is eccentric. He does things . . . differently, especially when in the classroom. He is often humorous at inappropriate moments, not to mention helplessly disorganized. His outlandish and outspoken behavior is to compensate for intense anxiety he has felt over the years, not to mention his battle with depression. He is acting ridiculously happy and fun because that's what he wants to be, even when he doesn't exactly feel it. He is not really that way when it comes to his wife or his family. When he is with them he barely speaks, he is agreeable, and he is rigid.
Likes: Animals, Fire, Music (playing and listening), Cooking, Spices/Spicy Food, Nature, Scarves, Children, Teaching, Dancing (Stupidly), Singing, Tweeting, his Wife's laugh, When Clouds Part, Finding lost things, et al.
Dislikes: Intolerance toward Religion, When people tell him to "be serious", Going to bed late, His Wife's Frown, His Neighbors, Cars, Watermelon
Fears/Phobias: He's afraid that his depression will overtake him and he'll commit suicide; he's afraid that his offspring will have his wife's family disease [but he hasn't told anyone this], he's afraid that he is failing those kids, he's afraid that he is failing himself. He's afraid of getting stuck in his tuba one day and suffocating. . . yeah, weird. He's afraid of depths. He is VERY afraid of his parents. . .EEP!
Favourite Colour: Brown . . . specifically the brown of his wife's skin.
Hobbies: Playing the many instruments he keeps inside of his home. . .he enjoys golf. . .Hiking. . .Running. . .ROLLERBLADING!. . .Doodling. . .Making strange contraptions out of the food he is eating [his wife was originally drawn to him because of this last hobby, but now she finds it annoying].
Taste in Music: He's a music freak. He likes to try a little bit of everything. He doesn't want to limit his students by limiting himself (that's what he says anyway).

SKILLS
Talent/Skills: Good at any instrument, Music Composition, Rollerblading, Computers, Turning everything into a Musical, Dancing [When he is not trying to embarrass his wife], Writing, Drawing, Paper Airplanes, Volleyball, Golf, Kite Running
Can they drive a car? Any other vehicles?: He "can" drive. "Will" he? No. He doesn't like cars. If he goes anywhere in a car, his wife is driving. She grumbles and grumbles, but at the end of the day she thinks it is pretty funny. Usually rollerblades are his "vehicle" of choice!

EATING HABITS
Diet: (Omnivore/Carnivore/Herbivore) (Vegan/Vegerarian?) He's almost a vegetarian but he does eat animal at least twice a month. He has a strict diet because of his allergies and this strict diet has birthed in him an overly conscious attitude toward what he is consuming. Thus, he eats mostly vegetables and such like.
Favourite Food(s): Traditional Indian food, BABY [He likes it best when his wife and mom cook it].
Favourite Drink(s): Water and Tea, (again) because he is health-conscious.
Disliked Food(s): BEEF and MILK, partly because he is allergic to them, partly because he doesn't like to mess with them cows. He dislikes watermelon; too bitter, too sweet - too something! He dislikes squash, also.
Disliked Drink(s): Alcohol, Soda, Juices - so many disliked drinks!

HOUSE AND HOME
Describe your character's house/home: His house has a large backyard. Green grass with adjacent greenhouse his wife tends. There's a little stream which runs down to the wheat field. This isn't their wheat field. It stands in place of a house that would traditionally be behind their house. They don't know who tends it, who harvests it, etc. . .just a mystery of the neighborhood. Inside are a bunch of instruments - EVERYWHERE. In the living room, in the kitchen, in the bathroom. It's a cacophony of instruments. Jas' papers lie everywhere as well. On the coffee table in the living room. Under the bed where thirteen unwashed socks have taken up residence after Jas lost track of them. His wife keeps a pretty tidy house, but it isn't easy, because she has work, too. There are about four bedrooms. One story. The neighborhood is densely populated and on a hill, but behind the neighborhood are fields and forest. The house has a lot of stuff in it, stuffed in a variety of places. They are well off in terms of their home, but only because their parents bought everything for them. There is also a garage but Jas stays clear of it.
Significant/special belongings: N/A

CAREER
Qualifications: P.h.D. in Music, Masters in English
Current Job Title: Music Teacher

FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Parents: His mother and father are alive but reside in India. Still, they visit him quite often despite the costs of travel. The two of them are still together.
Siblings: He has an older brother [aged 40] named Nikhil, who is a doctor. They're very distant from one another, both figuratively and literally. His brother remains in India with his parents. Nikhil occasionally comes with his parents to visit his younger brother, but he usually screws up the visit somehow. . .he keeps pressuring Jas to have children, but that's because he will never have children and he knows that his parents want grandchildren. He figures if Jas' gives them grandchildren, then they will stop pressuring him to find a wife. . .because he doesn't want a wife. He's gay and doesn't want to tell anyone that. Jas has no clue. Effectively, his brother takes out his problems on him.
Other Important Relatives: He has a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins but he doesn't see them very often. They live in India. As of right now, they're not "important", no.
Partner/Spouse: His wife Lalita. He calls her Lala, as in La La La. He's told her before that her soul "was the first song I had ever truly heard". When they had met, Jas was uncertain as to what to do with his life. His parents expected him to become a doctor like his brother, but he wanted to be something else. He just wasn't sure what this 'else' was. He liked music enough, then, and dabbled in other arts, but nothing clicked for him. But then Lala came into his life and it suddenly became clear to him how much he loved music. This is why she is his first song. With that said, Lala and Jas are extremely close. They don't talk much though - or, she talks and he listens. Their relationship is strong despite this. It's more about the energy they display to one another that shows their love more than any word they can express. But there is some strain in their marriage. Jas wants a child. Lala doesn't. This is because in Lala's family there is a neurological disorder that a lot of them have. It skipped Lala, but she doesn't think her children will be so fortunate. Lalita is a doctor like Jas' brother. Because of this, Lala and Jas' brother get along very well, and so she doesn't understand why Jas doesn't like him [Jas didn't tell her that he didn't like his brother. She just knew].
Children: (if any) None yet. He wants children, but his wife is afraid of passing a disease onto one of them.
Pets: (if any) A snake that he named Abut, because Jas often catches it crawling into his tuba.

BACKSTORY

Jaswinder was born in Damoh, India after a ten hour labor that his mother reports was very painful. He was an obedient child. His brother picked on him a lot, but he never got in trouble for it. His brother wasn't around much when he was growing up. He found a love for the arts early on as a way to express his imagination. He needed an imagination to make up for a lack of friends and for a lack of fraternity. His parents were strict, but not too unkind. They expected him to do a lot of things and he performed them admirably. He was a very bright student and people expected him to become something "important". A scientist or a doctor . . . a politician maybe. . .no one was pleased to find that he wanted to be a musician. At the age of sixteen, he met Lalita. She was the one who helped him to see what he wanted in his life. It wasn't because they talked about it - it was her energy that helped him. . .that feeling he got when he was around her. Jas decided he needed to take charge of his own life, but it wasn't easy. After his parents yelled at him fifteen times for his desires not matching up with their own, he left to England. He knew of a good music program there. He excelled at music, and while he was studying music he also studied English to get better at it. Time passed and eventually his parents forgave him, saw that he was making decent money. They saw that Lalita was a doctor and even if he was a failure, at least he had a wife to carry him through [a strange reaction considering that she herself was rebelling against expectations of a female in Indian society]. Jas obtained his degrees by the age of 28, but he wasn't happy just performing at concerts. He wanted to give an appreciation for music to others. So Jas went to Withernsea. He was over-qualified, sure, but that was why it was so easy to get a job there for him. Unfortunately, he learned quite quickly that he sucked at teaching, nevermind his good intentions. This made him fall into depression, a depression he had been in before. Lalita had arrived then, at the age of sixteen, and cured him of it. It came again when he realized he didn't enjoy performing music, and again Lalita was there, and he discovered his love of teaching. But here it was again, and Lalita was there, but it didn't go away. At the age of 30 he tried to off himself with a knife. He had done it in front of Lala. She was the one who operated on him and stitched him up. Two years later, he has some concerns over his own mental health, and he hasn't gotten much better at this teaching job.

CARPE DIEM
[Half asleep when I wrote this . . .]