The Scary Milestone Year

Book: The Crossover Year
Author: Bhargavi Balachandran

ISBN: 9788180460883
Pages: 288
Ratings: 3.5/5
Price: 200

Something from the Book

"Aren't we all nothing but a bunch of memories and attitudes born out of our life experiences?"

What scares a girl the most? Putting on weight, cockroaches, pimples, bad hair day and age 30! Yes not everyone but this is the case with most females, especially if you are 30 or turning 30 and feel your life is going absolutely nowhere. Same is the case with Sri Anu Prabha, the protagonist of the book The Crossover Year by Bhargavi Balachandran.

Sri Anu prabha is a twenty nine year old banker with engineering and MBA degree (yup banks are places where people with 2 awesome degrees get max jobs at).  The story starts with her wanting to quit her job and questioning her career option, but all in vain. After some twist and turns and meandering events, her confused self forces her to map her future and set up a five pointer flowchart. She gets rid of her job but all at the wrong hour as the demon of recession has a strong hold in market and Anu has no choice but to get hooked to Tamil serials. I the journey to find herself she falls in love with Raakkesh Kumar - a T.V. star; well what better companion than the Idiot box right. She joins a funky (not even close) gym called the Pink Panther Gym after an incident with her husband Mukund. She also streamlines her career options and is determined to drown herself in world of poems. But when has life worked your way? Neither did it go according to Anu.

The Crossover Year is a perfect chick lit without the theme of romance. (Now don’t ask me how, read to know..:D) It is a story with pages picked out of many normal women’s life. Everyone can relate to the confusion and turmoil of life that Anu goes through before coming of age. Life is a rollercoaster and Bhargavi lets you enjoy every turn and drop of it in this book though Anu’s journey.

Pros:

1. The book is a light and hilarious read. It can be picked anytime of the day and read just for enjoying leisure time. Instances like Pink Panther, Hitler and Birdie make you laugh.
2. Relatable situations – Almost every other page of the book you will find yourself saying “this so happens.” The book is a string of relatable events. From an Engineer MBA working in a bank to irritating Boss; from know it all friends to partner in crime shopaholics, from I don’t like my work to being ultra-modern Brahmins (adaptive actually); from not being an Aunty to being one and road to undoing it. The list just doesn’t end and keeps you involved all the time.
3. Narration – Anu makes sure you know her and see her story as a friend not reader. The 2^nd page of the book gives you’re her introduction which makes you smile for sure but makes you a part of the book too. I loved the way the story is narrated.
4. No real love story – When we think of chick lit we think of emotional journeys, mushy love stories and heartbreaks but I was so glad when I found this book to be none of the above.

Cons:

1. Localizing and use of jargons – In a way it gives insight to a section of the Indian Society – The Tam Brahms; but at the same time too much Madrasi flavor of the book spoils the taste to some extent.
2. No closure to her career line. She was something, wanted to be something else, became something else and was content. I really hoped in the end she would have decided to embrace the new life but never stop herself from trying to do what she actually decided to. I was a bit disappointed with the end.
3. A lot of characters seemed wasted – Though Bhargavi tried to pitch in all the characters everywhere possible, I felt accept for Anu and Smrithi the other characters were wasted.

On the whole the crossover year is a must read for every girl in her twenties and new to the corporate world. Apart from them it is an enjoyable weekend book for all the book lovers. I would rate the book a 3.5 on 5. The strong female protagonist and the today’s story made me remember the last scene of Zoya Akhtar’s Luck by Chance. Movie buffs this is your cue to pick your next book from any book store you visit next.

P.S. - Thankyou Bhargavi for giving me a chance to review your book. Really loking forward to your next one. Best of luck. And this is a completely unbiased review of the book...:)

Pictures - Personal