I haven’t read a romantic novel in ages. There was a time when I read nothing but romantic books. Where the hero was this tall dark handsome well to do guy and the lady a beautiful girl in trouble. Despite all their differences they end up falling in love. We would buy these books and exchange among our circles. There was this unspoken competition among us to finish the book first. Usually we bought these books at Ekta Book House in Thapathali, where we would go to buy most of our course books as well. The chief reason we ended up buying these Mills and Boon (MB) books were because they cost comparatively less. As I was shorting my book-rack yesterday I came upon some of these books and an incident flashed back. My sister and I had gone to buy a few note-books in a bookstall near our house. Once there we found out this shop too had selling our favourite MBs. We chose a few from the rack but decided to take only one when we did not agree on the price. The shopkeeper reasoned with us to buy all the books we had initially selected. One of his reason was- ‘I have no doubt whatsoever that you will benefit from these books.’ What a laugh we had then. Benefiting from the knowledge gained by a romantic book was indeed hilarious. After all these years, I want to read a romantic book again but more than that I want to desperately believe in the happily ever after theme of those books.
–Â Pratichya Dulal
