A Year of Wednesdays is a work of Contemporary-Fiction,
written with exceptional brilliancy and I’m not even exaggerating. The book
felt more like an impromptu journey than a perfect plotted story. It’s a
first-person point of view narration of two strangers connected through their
first and only encounter. I found it wittiest that how these characters present
their point of view to each other and even in their own minds. And oh, I can’t
even describe how well the writing style is, like A++ minus─ (minus), eventually
A+++. It is absolutely brilliant, the author Sonia Bahl enlightens us with insights on the
planet & its population, climate change, lefties, a lot of movies and
quotes.
"You should never have to tell someone how to love you."
The strangers are called Seat 7A and Seat 7B. Seat 7A is the
cool Wall Street guy and Seat 7B is the mom-with-the-drool-stained-sweater-and-ordinary-aspirations.
After the first encounter, they leave and continue to live their distinct and
way too different lifestyles in New York. Seat 7A is a goal-oriented working in
an oil-trading firm. Seat 7B works for a small nature fund, she’s a green
warrior. Seat 7A has a girlfriend; Natasha is nothing-or-nobody-can-stand-between-me-and-my-career
girl. Seat 7B is married to her love of life, Riz with two kids and one of them
is a toddler. They have a pet also.
"Losing someone is always unfair."
A Year of Wednesdays, the collection of Wednesdays to look
into their individual life and understand their perspective on life, whether
it’s all about winning or the love and why is that? They might have left the
flight, but not the memories of never-ending arguments. It’s like they are
living in each other’s mind, still connected. Sonia Bahl has represented their
lives in Wednesdays, through their daily struggles and for one reason or
another happens to remember those arguments and defend their point of views.
"Imagine what a gift it is to have someone give you their full attention because they really do want to hear you."
One thing they don’t know is, what the other one’s going
through currently in their life. The Wednesdays continue with its course,
portraying moments of happiness, sorrow, fun, their life stories and
never-ending thoughts. The major conflict of the book is capitalism and how
that approach to the economy does not take into consideration the preserving of
natural resources. The constant use of such economic system can result in
depletion of natural resources and that we are living at the expense of our
future generation. Anyways, Seat 7A does his job as demanded, enjoying the
perks of being a trader and exaggerate the idea of saving the earth and there’s
nothing wrong in what he is doing, supporting capitalism through oil trading
firm. He would not understand the idea of pausing and reflecting back on life. Seat 7B is all about little moments of love, joy and kindness, she
believes that if her boys learn and teaches kindness, her job is done. But we
all know that nothing’s right or wrong. It always varies.
Towards the end, the author Sonia Bahl opens the secret doors to their
lives, reveals their close-to-heart moments and the life stories, and explains
what makes them who they are now. As the pages turn, the words seem to be
touched by poignance. The feeling grows intense of confronting each other and
putting the full stop to the never-ending arguments they’re having in the head.
And that is what exactly happens.
"I can't decide if it's worse to carry the load of crazy sadness from losing a parent or the one that comes from knowing you'll never miss a parent you'll lose."
You would ask what all so good about A Year of Wednesdays, I will say
‘EVERYTHING’. As you start reading the book, you start laughing out loud. Like,
the analogies and the comparisons the author has used are hilarious sometimes. Moving
forward, you get used to the fun and joyful moments. A Year of Wednesdays is full of references─ quotes, movies, pop-culture
and what not. Yes, Harry Potter is also a part of this, whose 39th
birthday was the last Wednesday of July. There are life-changing and
life-saving insights that made me wonder only, how didn’t I know this before. That
adorable couple parenting two little boys. With that, emotions take over you─ love, compassion, care
and warmth. Then comes the feelings of sorrow and loss. But that humour,
insights and arguments never fade away. In the end, the book leaves you filled
with emotions yet numb. You get so used to with those impactful and captivating
characters that you would not want to leave them because that means giving up
those ever-lasting Wednesdays.
