The Crossover Year - Review

Meet Sri Anuprabha, aka Anu, a twenty-nine year-old banker who is terrified of entering her thirties. She dreams of quitting her job at the bank, sporting yoga pants and traipsing around the world. Her world turns upside down when things go awry and she is faced with the prospect of spending her days watching Tamil serials. She comes up with a five-point plan for reclaiming her life back before she hits the big 30. But things are never as simple as drawing up a flowchart in real life, are they? Especially with a ghastly recession rearing its ugly head.

Anu bumbles through the corridors of domesticity and travels on a fun-filled roller coaster ride in a bid to discover her passion in life. Along the way, she meets new people, experiences crazy things and learns some hard lessons in marriage, friendship, parenting and life. 

The Crossover Year is a funny, yet heartwarming story of a woman in search of her identity, and a chronicle of her hilarious quest for discovering her inner mojo. Bring out a platter of cookies and a steaming mug of chai, and join Anu on the ride of her lifetime.

About the Author

Bhargavi Balachandran spent many years doing things as diverse as selling office equipment, air conditioners and corporate loans to analyzing balance sheets after her MBA. After quitting her full-time job, she found happiness thinking up insane plots and concocting stories.

She has written articles, travelogues and short stories for magazines and a newspaper. Bhargavi also has a romance novella to her credit, and is an avid blogger.

She currently lives in Chennai with her husband, and loves travelling, reading books and painting.

'The Crossover Year' is sweetness in simplicity … no unnecessary twists or frills, but rather, a conglomeration of events that jot up the life of Anu, a twenty-nine year old banker who tries to regain her identity after quitting her job at the bank.

Things can be tough when you get out of your normal routine. Anu portrays that feeling when she resigns from her job one fateful day. She realizes that she has had enough from her boss, and would no longer tolerate him or his evil schemes in the corporate world. She leaves with a dream in her eyes of making her life bigger and better than what it is currently.

However, you can never plan where life would lead you. The recession hits across all shores, and soon Anu regrets her decision to quit her job where she worked for years. Fear leads to depression and then to insecurity. Her husband, Mukund, whom she met at Tamilmatrimony.com, is supportive and caring, but then again, he too feels the heat of monthly expenses when Anu gets overboard and spends a princely sum of twenty thousand on gym costumes.

The plot revolves around the relationships, new found and the lost ones that entangle Anu through her journey. While she feels her old friends drifting away, an unlikely bond is created with Vinita and Gaurav, and their pet doggie. A smile finds a place in your face, and you love reading her thoughts. They are relaxing in a sense, laid back and lazy, but fun, nevertheless.

The narration is lucid, and you feel that the author is speaking directly to you. That’s what keeps the pace going, and you can easily finish the book in a few hours. Right from the point where Anu quits her job, to the moment when she participates in a Super Home Maker contest, with her favorite TV actor Raakkesh being one of the judges, the author, Bhargavi Balachandran keeps you engaged with her descriptive use of words. The scenes are very well painted, and you get the feel of being in the pages along with the characters. That is one important plus about 'The Crossover Year' that keeps it glowing throughout.

Anu is a woman of today, strong and confident, but a bit confused at times. She trusts her friends, and loves the company of close associates. Her husband, Mukund, is a sweet chap who pampers her wife with ‘gift vouchers’ (I so loved this idea, totally unique and fresh). He trusts her completely and performs the role of a true partner. I loved the minor quarrels that they had, and the subsequent patch-ups. Mushy and cute.

However, a few events in the book turns out to be predictable, and as a reader you feel that a few twists here and there would have accentuated the appeal of the story-line. Moreover, at places, use of abbreviations without a reference hampered the flow.

'The Crossover Years' falls in the genre of chick-lit, and will appeal mostly to women. However, literature doesn't have a gender, and this book has the potential to draw the attention of men as well. Don’t we all want to know what goes inside the mind of women? Yes, grab this book and you would know.

If you are looking for a light read, ‘The Crossover Year’ will definitely serve the purpose. Give it a try.

Title: The Crossover Year

Authors: Bhargavi Balachandran

Publisher: Alchemy Publishers

Publication Year: 2013

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

Genre: Chick-Lit, Fiction

No. of Pages: 288

Price: Rs 200

My Rating: 3/5