I picked a Mills and Boon off the shelf today -out of curiosity to see what had become of the books that fired my imagination when I was a young girl.
Nishna was horrified - that her mother, who reads (sort of ) good books - would read something on a bought bride, whose new man wants her mind , body and soul - all willing and pliant!!!! I think she was ready to disown me!!!
But the M& B bought back old forgotten memories...of dusty circulating libraries in the GK M Block market that were packed with these books. Of authors like Penny Jordan, Charlotte Lamb, Anne Mather , Carole Mortimer and Emma Darcy. Of titles like ‘The Billionaire takes a Bride’, ‘ Bought Bride’, ‘Dark Dominion’, ‘Forbidden Fire’ and ‘Cruel Legacy’.
Of TDH -Tall Dark Handsome men, generally super rich, with set jaws, unsmiling eyes, a rough manner with the heroine and sarcasm laden sentences .These TDHs were the ones most of us fantasised about...we wanted to be swept off our feet by dishy , brooding, men of less words such as these! Thankfully the fantasies were not disturbed yet by adulthood..when the TDH was replaced by a gentle loving person who would take care of us and demonstrate his love too!!!
The stories were predictable. The book would be a max of 196 pages. The first chapter would introduce the heroine, her sorry financial predicament , her beautiful eyes and lovely mouth , but there would be something of the plain Jane in her. By the second chapter you met the TDH - a business tycoon, with an arrogant manner, without the conventional good looks but an animal aura about him. The drama would continue till chapter 9 - the heroine would feel all flustered around the TDH, the TDH may have had another girl, usually a glam doll, the heroine would feel that all was lost to her, coz she had the hots (oops, they called it love then) for the TDH who paid her scant attention, or hated her or felt nothing for her at all. Sometimes, there would be TDH’s mother too, who hated/loved the heroine. And then, when the heroine decided to walk away from it all, in Chapter 10, the TDH would confess his love for her, sweep her into his arms, run his fingers through her lustrous hair and kiss her with all his passion ....ask her to be his....and they would be together - after all!!
This predictability made the books so appealing!!! During exam times, I would be a frequent visitor to the circulating library. I would get atleast four books everyday. And in between the breaks I took, I would curl into bed with a M&B. I did not have to pay attention to the story, I could skip pages, go off to sleep, and come to the end of the book in 45 minutes flat. The book would clean up the clutter in my mind and refresh me for another marathon session of studying!! The best palate cleanser!!!
I am not ashamed to confess that I loved my M&Bs. They were my first introduction to the world of romance, of intense feelings described in words, of men that you could dream about, of the way my own romance could potentially play out! It was a world so removed from my reality - of school/college , books, exams and the lack of interesting boys/men that I could dream of!!
The influence of M&Bs stayed on in my subconscious...So when I had to co-write a YA romantic novel with one of India’s leading novelists, I divided my story into plot, chapters, crisis and denouement in the manner of the M&B novels! I wanted my young readers to feel the same feelings I had when I read M&Bs!!
And one day - I intend to write my own M&B!!! With my own TDH dude!
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