Accepted - Mai

About You, the Writer:
We will never ask any member to disclose any personal information.
College graduate, Parks and Rec, betcha I’m the oldest person here. Also...the only computers I can use that have Internet block Cbox; so if you try to contact me that way I’m not ignoring you on purpose.
Your Nickname: (A moniker to identify you, the writer.
Can be your first name or a nickname.) Kat
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? Link on a friend’s site, spent a few hours exploring, liked what I saw.
If you have written other characters here, list them all: This will be my first.

Full Character Name: Colonel Ahmed Kabir Khan
Character Birthday & Age: June 21, 1968. Aged 40.
City & Country of Birth: Srinagar, India; Province of Kashmir
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn?: Half.
Alma Mater: The temple of the Kalachakra, in Shamballa.
Job:Colonel; Indian Border Security Force

Wand: Deodar Cedar, 11.5 inches. Core a feather from the crest of a Garuda; the  man/eagle of Buddhist and Hindu myth

Physical Description: Ahmed is a tall man (6’2) with a lanky build. He is olive-complexioned, with greenish eyes flecked with gold. In certain lights, or when he is angry, they turn amber, like the eyes of a tiger. He has black wavy hair and a beard; which like his hair, he keeps neatly trimmed.

Personality Description: Like many law enforcement officers, at heart Ahmed is a gentle soul, who does what he does because he cares about people. He is tolerant and slow to anger…though should his anger become aroused all bets are off. He will not get angry on his own account...but seeing others harmed is another story. Especially should it be women and children, or the elderly; in which case he is more likely to throw a punch than a hex. However if the tormenter is into hexing people he will respond in kind. Some may see Ahmed’s uniform, and mistakenly assume the only weapons he understands are firearms...

History: Ahmed’s mother was English, and a witch. It was the Sixties, and like many others she came to India in search of enlightenment. Instead she found romance, in the form of a young Pashtun tribal chieftain. Again like many others, after a time she decided love was not all you need; and soon after Ahmed’s birth, she and her Pashtun friend parted company. This is all that Ahmed’s father would ever tell him about her. But Ahmed never had cause to feel deprived, for he had a grandmother, aunts, female cousins and servants to fuss over him. When he was five years old his father married; but unlike in the storybooks, Ahmed’s stepmother was kind to him. And soon he had a baby sister, whom he adored. Nevertheless Ahmed has always wondered about his birth mother.

Just after Ahmed’s seventh birthday, it became evident that he had inherited his mother’s talents. In the beginning this involved seeing things that others did not. Or shall we say he  saw beings others did not? There are many such creatures in that part of the world...snow lions, the yeti, the garuda, rakshasas, and dakinis, to name just a few. Ahmed was brought up to regard all of these as sentient beings. In other words, as people, not animals...

He was home-schooled until, at the same age when students here are sent to Hogwarts, he was sent to Shamballa, the Hidden City of Light. The temple school oversaw his training; and his greatest skills turned out to be in Defense Against the Dark Arts. After graduating from the temple school, he went on to the University of Mumbai, where he took a degree in Criminology. After that he enlisted in the Indian Border Security Force. Though in appearance he is an ordinary Law Enforcement officer, he is also what the Western magical tradition would call an Auror.

What is your occupation? Colonel, Indian Border Security Force (BSF). Presently assigned as liason to the Ministry of Magic.

How do you go about it? Ahmed leads patrols to monitor ancient smuggling routes across the Karakorum, Himalaya and Kunlun Mountains. Lately there are rumors that the smuggling involves rare magical creatures. He understands there is a market for these creatures with certain people in the British wizarding community. He is here to investigate and share information.

How did you get your current occupation? The Indian Armed Forces have a secret wizarding branch. Ahmed has qualified for his position and rank through a combination of education, experience and skills.

How do your past and abilities justify your current skills? Ahmed has eighteen years of experience in his field, and an almost lifelong rapport with magical creatures.

Writing Sample:
Show your character in a scene that illustrates the best and worst aspects
of their personality. Include action, dialog and thought.

((This is the defining incident of Ahmed’s history, at least so far...))

December, 2005
BSF Headquarters
Delhi, India

Major Kabir Ahmed walked out of the courtroom, sick at heart. He had just been forced to testify against a friend, Lt. Colonel Panjit Singh, in a bribery case. Singh had offered him money…a lot of money…to look the other way while a shipment of opium crossed the border. Now Singh was going to jail. On the way out, Ahmed stopped to look his old friend in the eye. Singh met his gaze without flinching. “You cannot stop them,” he said. “While you block one shipment, ten others slip through. And sooner or later…they’ll kill you.”

“Is it worse to die all at once?” Ahmed answered. “Or little by little like you, Panjit Singh?” And turning his back, he walked away.

As he stepped out into the late-afternoon sun he felt a strangeness, as if the ground fell away beneath his feet. Coming from a place where earthquakes were commonplace, Ahmed recognized the feeling at once. Shuddering, he looked around; but no one was running outside in a panic, the trees were not swaying, everything was quiet. Evidently what he had felt was only in his head. He supposed it must be stress.

He did not sleep well that night; and when he finally did drift off he had nightmares that he could not remember upon waking.

Turning on the radio next morning, the first thing Ahmed heard was that there had indeed been an earthquake, centered in a place called Gujarat. The BSF was one of the few organizations in the country with the capability to mount a backcountry rescue effort, and within 24 hours Ahmed and his troops were on the way, to do what they could for the survivors.

Landslides had taken out the roads through most of the passes, so it took over a week to reach the place they sought. It had been a deep valley next to a river, a green, fertile place with many orchards and gardens. And over a thousand people.  

Ahmed stared at it in stunned silence. An entire mountain had crumbled, engulfing it and changing the course of the river; but what Ahmed saw was not a chaotic mass of dirt and boulders. It was the mud brick walls of his father’s palace…apricot trees in flower…the river he swam in as a boy…the room where he and Sanjana laughed in the darkness, the classroom where his children took their lessons…

And then, grabbing a shovel, he began to dig frantically. The men in his command looked at each other uneasily. No one could be alive under all that rubble; it had all but filled up the valley. Sooner or later, Ahmed must give up. After all, there were others elsewhere that they might still save.

But futile though it was, they understood what the Major was doing. Most of them had families too.

One by one, they began helping him dig…

Sum up your character in one paragraph:

Ahmed is a deeply wounded man, who needs his duties in order to have a reason to live. Survivor’s guilt may tempt him to take foolish risks; though he will not do so if the lives of others are at stake. He has issues with abandonment, and will be hesitant to ever let anyone get close to him again…