It was only befitting (and purely coincidental) that I started reading Sonia Bahl’s A Year of Wednesdays on a flight journey myself. Unlike the protagonists, mine wasn’t a fifteen-hour flight (only two hours), but after getting through the first 100 pages I couldn’t help but notice how poetic the situation felt.
A Year of Wednesdays is the story of two unnamed strangers — unless, like the author, you too prefer to call them by their seat numbers ‘7A’ and ‘7B’ — who happen to be seated next to each other on a fifteen-hour flight journey from New Delhi to New York. As the title suggests, they meet on a fateful Wednesday.
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Seat 7A is a highly-paid Wall Street stock broker whose entire personality revolves around his bank account. Seat 7B, on the other hand, is an underpaid environmentalist and mother who shuffles between raising two children and convincing people that climate change is real.
In a slightly Before Sunrise-esque manner, Seat 7A and 7B strike a conversation but it’s not as magical as that of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. With personalities that are obviously poles apart, Seat 7A and 7B indulge in an endless game of verbal one upmanship. Their conversations are anything but civil, with both of them constantly throwing jibes at each other. But somehow, as the author will have us believe, these conversations stay with them for a very long time — an entire year, to be precise.
For the next 45 chapters, or Wednesdays, Sonia Bahl takes us through the lives of the protagonists.
As one of the characters in the book puts it, “The ultimate rom-com trope is loathe at first sight.”
What clearly starts off as a potent, interesting, and light-hearted (for the lack of a better word) chick-lit novel, becomes disappointing just 50 pages into the book. Filled with trivial internal monologues and stereotypes, A Year of Wednesdays gets stuck in a one-dimensional trajectory. We’re made privy to the separate lives of both the characters, but the connection between the two strangers is utterly unconvincing.
Yet, something about the book makes you want to give it a chance. Maybe it’s the curiosity to find out if the strangers actually meet again or just an inexplicably vague hopefulness. As one of the characters in the book puts it, “The ultimate rom-com trope is loathe at first sight.”
Sonia Bahl develops the two characters in their individual capacity. We’re allowed into the little intimate spaces of their lives.
A Year of Wednesdays is very evidently set in the present, modern world. Expect innumerable pop culture references and slightly cringe-y usage of millennial lingo that doesn’t fit quite right in the context of two successful working adults. Moreover, after a certain point, the plot starts to seem directionless as the protagonists continue to go about their lives with no particular premise defining their actions. A Year of Wednesdays sometimes loses purpose but succeeds in giving you a slice-of-life perspective.
While the threadbare connection between Seat 7A and 7B becomes drab and inconclusive halfway through the book, it’s their individual poignancy that lingers despite everything. Bahl develops the two characters in their individual capacity. We’re allowed into the little intimate spaces of their lives. From the man’s solo movie nights that consist of romantic comedies only to the woman’s obsession with bizarre things like signs and days of the week — Bahl (though ineffectively) explores themes of religion, relationships, and career.
It’s not until the last 80 pages that you begin to empathise with the characters.
One particular aspect that certainly stands out is Bahl’s bold and unfiltered exploration of modern-day capitalism as we know it. The protagonists’ vastly different relationships with money is presented unabashedly. Having said that, at times the book seems awfully preachy — but it’s a feeling that doesn’t last.
For most part of it, A Year of Wednesdays lacks legitimacy because of the writing style employed. And it’s not until the last 80 pages that you begin to empathise with the characters. After a tragic death and an imminent break up, both Seat 7A and 7B are drawn towards each other. Whether or not they succeed in finding each other, a year after they first met, is debatable. Additionally, the climax doesn’t tie any loose ends. However, it does provide the semblance of closure.
A Year of Wednesdays is neither entertaining nor introspective. But if meandering conversations about life is your cup of tea, you might want to give it a try.
Title: A Year of Wednesdays
Author: Sonia Bahl
Pages: 279
Publisher: Fingerprint Publishing
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