Delhiwale: She’s out of the closet

An author reveals her past with romances

How could any man be so mean? Could Kate really bear Adam long enough to discover the gentleness he apparently possessed? More urgently, did Rakhshanda Jalil really care?

Ms Jalil devoured Adam’s Law with unadulterated pleasure. Now, decades later, the acclaimed author of 30 books outs herself as a devotee of Mills & Boon paperbacks. (Mayank Austen Soofi)

Turns out the highbrow Ms Jalil devoured Adam’s Law with unadulterated pleasure. Now, decades later, the acclaimed author of 30 books outs herself as a devotee of Mills & Boon paperbacks.

“Millsies were my escape into romance, travel, and new places,” Ms Jalil, 58, gushes in a voice not at all hoarse with passion, totally unlike the slushy Mills & Boon heroines. Here she pauses, and murmurs more softly—“I haven’t read a Millsie for 30 years.”

This afternoon the writing room in her central Delhi home is dignified with classics by Urdu and English literary giants. Poet Ghalib’s portrait hangs on the wall. The room’s heirloom bookrack originally belonged to her legendary grandfather—Professor Aley Ahmad Suroor, poet and Urdu scholar in Aligarh Muslim University.

And then there’s the elephant in the room—a row of tatty MBs, each as slim as its female protagonist.

“I began reading the Millsies in my final year at school and read them all through BA and MA,”

In time Ms Jalil grew out of these pulpy escapades. But by then she had been affected enough to walk down the aisle with her own handpicked TDH—the romance novel speak for a tall, dark, handsome man.

Recently, she culled her library collection by giving away 500 books, but kept the romance stash. “Out of pure sentimental attachment,” Ms Jalil declares in coy defiance, her gaze possessively turning to the Millsies in her hands.