Happy Beginnings

Milan Vohra,the first Indian Mills and Boon author,talks in cliches,much like the ones she uses in her novellas.”Writing my book was just like another Mills and Boon relationship,” says the 46-year-old,“We had a two year courtship which culminated to the launch of this book,which I would say is a happy ending.” The Love Asana,(Rs 99),Vohra’s first attempt at romance,incorporates love and tragedy (but,of course) set in the Indian context,and was launched at the Taj Mahal Hotel,on Mansingh Road.

Mills and Boon,the British publisher,held a writing competition last year in India,in an attempt to diversify their writing pool and discover local literary talent. Vohra,who runs her own advertising agency in Bangalore,was the winner of the competition,and was subsequently signed on for a full length novel. The Love Asana revolves around billionaire Vivan Prashar and his quest for revenge from competitor Deepak Dewan. He turns to the time-tested M and B tradition of making his sister Pari suffer. After a multitude of misunderstandings and an eventual showdown,peace is restored and love returned.

Vohra set out to write the novel with a clear agenda: “I wanted to allow my characters to be a combination of several physical and emotional traits,but they could not have any concrete resemblances to the people I knew. This is why I’ve used very unique names,and built up personalities that are different from what I’ve come across.”

Vohra,a Jesus and Mary College graduate in economics,dated her husband for seven years before getting married to him at the age of 24. Now with two children — a daughter aged 20 and a son who is 13 — Vohra insists that more young men should read Mills and Boon to educate them on what women want. “Earlier there used to be a ‘hush-hush factor attached to M and B novels,” she says,“This may still be the case in smaller cities,but the metros do have die-hard romantics from all generations who read the series.” Vohra is on a five-city tour and will be in Mumbai,Pune,Hyderabad and Bangalore starting next week.

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