It is hard to say whom I love more — my mother or my father," a 13-year-old Mehr-un-nissa ponders. It's a thought that has crossed many teenage minds. And a secret diary is perhaps the best place to pen it down. But that thought becomes a fitting introduction to Mehr-un-nissa's life itself, in the book The Teenage Diary of Nur Jahan (Speaking Tiger) by Deepa Agarwal, the name she earned after marrying Mughal Emperor Jahangir as his 12th wife.

A fictionalised account, Agarwal, a poet, and translator, paints a vivid portrait of a girl who had a vision and a keen sense of observation. This is brought out by diary entries where she writes of impressing her tutor with her knowledge of foreign languages and eventually losing interest in the Meena Bazaars that were set-up regularly in the Mughal Court as a source of entertainment for women in the harem. The book, that releases today, is part of the publisher's ongoing teenage diary series. Two titles on Jahanara and Jodh Bai authored by Subadhra Sen will release next month. Edited excerpts from an interview with Agarwal.