Sorry-not-sorry, yet ANOTHER JHMS fanfic. This time watching it, I was thinking about how I would translate it to America. And it actually works really well.

JHMS with Two American Leads

I think I cracked this! You need a hero from a rural farming community that is slightly outside of the norm for the country. And a heroine from a very insolated community with it’s own certain rules that make her see outsiders as not “real” somehow.

My American version, my Harry is an American from a Spanish speaking California farming community. He left home to be a singer, landed up in Europe, and now is working as a tour guide for American tours. Where he is generally treated as “the help” and disregarded and ignored.

My Sejal would be from the American South, a very old small town family. She went to an all girls Christian college while living at home, now works as a paralegal at her family bank, and this whole trip is to force her engagement to the son of the family that co-owns the bank. I’m thinking, something like two great grandpa’s founded it, they want to confirm the connection in this generation, Sejal is a proper young lady without much else going on in her life, so her family throws her at the proper boring son of the other family.

This would work, right? My Harry is deeply homesick for his hometown and the farmlands where he was raised, but is too ashamed to return after he snuck away in the middle of the night thinking he would become a famous singer. And he has hidden his identity and heritage, trying to be the perfect cosmopolitan tour guide.

My Sejal has a particular clear type that she is supposed to be (proper southern lady is still very specific), and is from a community where she would legitimately be sheltered and unknowing of the whole world. And would have been raised to accept the blame for basically anything that goes wrong.

And then we get to Radha! I even have Sejal’s hymn picked out, I would have her sing “I Come to the Garden” which is a great “it’s about Jesus but also being in love” song. And then Harry would sing something equally appropriate that I don’t know because I don’t know that community so much.

Even Mayank works, another Hispanic American in Europe. And his wedding has Harry singing, Sejal leading the dancing, and a merge of cultures.

Genevieve? This is roughly your region? What do you think? Harry as a homesick California farmboy?

JHMS Set in India With European Leads

Okay, my Europeans! I need you to check me on this. I’m gonna do my best with what little I know of European cultures.

Harry is Greek from a farming family, he left home to be a singer, he is homesick for the fields and farms but too ashamed to return home. He hides his heritage and tries to be just a normal general tour guide in South Asia, one of many identical western travelers.

Sejal is British, again from a proper family, from an old religious family. Like, her grandfather is a Bishop, her father is a minister, and so on. She works as the church secretary and legal advisor, has never left home even when going to school. And this whole trip is to visit missions, and also arrange her engagement to a Proper up and coming young minister that the family approves of. Heck, let’s make this minister desi, thus tying back to the meaning of the trip. He’s young, he’s hip, he’s the future of the church. And Sejal’s family wants to bring him into their fold.

The trip is to visit the usual monuments like Taj Mahal and stay in luxury hotels. But when Harry and Sejal go back a second time, they end up renting little guest houses, and going to outdoor chat shops and Sejal experiments with adding scarves and big earrings and things to her boring proper style. Without rejecting her own style entirely. The scary Prague sequence is in Delhi (of course), they start in Bombay, Harry’s homebase is Bangelore, and the place they visit that they skipped on tour, the Phurr place, is Kerala.

Mayank’s wedding can be Christian to a Hindu, so Sejal and Harry bring in the white dresses and ring exchanges and all those things for Mayank. Does that work? Or maybe not.

What do you think? Is there a better European characters option?

JHMS in America with Central Asian Characters

Again, I need help! But I think this works. And I want to do at least one set in America, which means Harry and Sejal have to be from somewhere very different.

My Harry would be Mongolian I think, loves the steppes, the big open fields, all of that. He ran away from home to be a singer (throat singer? Is that the right place?) and landed in America where he struggled and eventually became a tour guide for a Mandarin/Cantonese speaking tour company.

My Sejal would be from Hong Kong, minor political family, making an alliance with another political family through her engagement. Works in the family political office, has a degree, but never actually left home. She speaks English and is very proud of her English skills, but struggles with strong American accents (reason she needs Harry).

The original trip did the Washington monuments, Rockefeller Center and Central Park, San Francisco, and ended up with a fun trip to Vegas. When they go around again, they see Vegas by day with tired workers, speed through museums, get bumped into and yelled at in New York. Maybe that’s the Prague comparison, not that New York is super dangerous, but that a confused sheltered woman with difficulty understanding accented English could easily wander into the wrong place and get spooked.

Just to make me happy, I would say Harry’s homebase is Chicago, Mayank is marrying a local there, and thanks to Sejal they manage to throw together a Buddhist wedding last minute. And the place they visit that they didn’t see on the tour, the Portugal place, is Miami.