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.
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