My Romance with Mills & Boon

This morning I was quite thrilled to note that Mills & Boon will be releasing a book with Indian characters. I presume it was a final acknowledgement that India is a big market for western publishers.

Till I got married I had never heard of them. One day I saw my wife reading a book published by M & B.As I was comparatively free I decided to give a shot at reading the book by some unknown author called Penny Jordan. It was like opening a Pandora’s Box. I got sucked into a whirlpool I have not been able to get out of. There was a circulating library near Commercial Street which stocked a whole lot of M & Bs. I knew the kind of stories each author would write. The scenario would shift from England to Greece to Brazil to Spain and Italy. Sometimes to the US and Australia. I knew that Betty Neels would write Doctor/Nurse stories based in Holland.

The heroine would generally be a self-sacrificing virgin of modest means whose first boyfriend would be a good natured blonde. The hero would be older, rich, mostly dark-haired with graying temples and a rather disapproving type. In the Italian setting the hero would say ‘cara’ instead of ‘darling’. The European setting ones would generally have a grandmother who controls the family and is the first one to realize that the heroine is the perfect choice for her grandson, irrespective of the social mismatch. The ‘villi” would be modeled on our hindi film Bindu type. In the initial years sex was a no-no. However, to keep pace with modern times the Victorian attitude has made way to ground reality in the recent books. They now come with such alluring titles as “Lessons in Seduction”, “Revealed: His secret child”…

Just like Jeffrey Archer has realized that his future millions will be earned from sales in India, Mills & Boon have also joined the bandwagon. Their books are now available for less than Rs 100 through online stores.

I need to find more place on my bookshelf.

Joy of Cricket

Every time the Indian cricket team tours overseas there is heightened interest among the millions of fans that follow the game in the country. The present tour of Australia is no exception.

As one who has watched several International matches in the UK, the excitement is quite palpable among the Indians. Tickets are not easy to get as the cricket stadiums in the UK are pretty small. The seats are sold out within minutes of the online booking going live, particularly for the match at Lord’s.

Well before D-day, the old India ODI tee shirts are brought out from the cupboard and dusted. Somehow it seems easier to get a big Indian flag overseas than in India. The ones with initiative also manage to get special matching clothes or headgear. The employed somehow get leave or bunk office for the match-days. Each ground has its own ethos and the spectator behavior is influenced by that. At Lord’s the brochure that comes along with the ticket has a whole list of do’s and don’ts. The spectators in the more expensive seats are dressed formally and politely clap rather than whistle or shout as it happens in the lower stands at the Oval. Regrettably, in both the series I watched in England our team performed rather poorly but still the enthusiasm to pay and watch a losing cause remains, tour after tour.

Unfortunately, thanks to the heightened security, matches in India are no longer like a picnic where home-cooked food is shared and there is general bonhomie and family atmosphere. A friend of mine in Australia, whom I spoke to a couple of days back has already planned the menu for family and friends to take to the India-Australia Boxing Day test match in Melbourne. An eclectic South Indian fare consisting of tamarind rice, curd rice, pappadam and pickles.

This is in contrast to a match I attended at the Oval recently. One of our country men from the North first took out a large tiffin box full of samosa and aloo bonda. Sometime later it was boxes of chicken kalmi kebab. Just when we thought that was the end of the repast, this chap conjured up packets of huge aloo paranthas. He was pretty generous sharing the food with all of us. The other difference between watching an international match in India and in other countries is the liberal consumption of beer. Right around the stands there are the draught beer pumps that are open the whole day. It is not surprising that by the last session of play the shouting gets more raucous but in a humorous vein.

For an Indian enthusiast living at home, the challenge is in watching the television broadcast across continents. Particularly testing are the time zone difference for New Zealand or the West Indies. But the fans are a hardy lot. As some wit has said. “You can take away an Indian from cricket but never cricket from an Indian.”