Andaleeb Wajid’s Book Is a Balm For Singletons Nearing Thirty

If you’re single, nearing thirty and want a delightful novel to curl up with on a weekend, this book is for you.

• What? A book about four women who’re on the cusp of turning thirty, and how they discover friendship, love and self-love in this year.
• Whom is it for? If you’re single, nearing thirty and want an uplifting novel to curl up with on a weekend. Also, anyone who’s interested in Indian ‘chick-lit’ beyond conventional authors.

Who isn’t scared of turning thirty? It’s the age by when you’re supposed to have figured life out; when you retire your fun-twenties boots, the deadline for achieving something noteworthy (those 30 under 30 lists!) and a possible expiry date for your romantic life. In Andaleeb Wajid’s Twenty-Nine Going on Thirty, the thirty-milestone looms large for four young women – Priya, Farida, Mimi and Namrata. They make up an uplifting sisterhood of friends who meet while working in an office in a muti-national company in Bangalore. But different as they might be, a single question binds them. Will they make it to thirty in one piece?

When was the last time you read a book with a protagonist like the women you work with? Or when did a book last reflect the challenges of your life, presumably a working woman living in a big city with a torturous commute and strong friendships? Chances are you probably didn’t. Because books with these stories were lying in the ‘chick-lit’ section of a bookstore, which you passed over for fear of encountering badly written prose. Or worse, judgement of fellow readers.

‘Chick-lit’ or stories written about women, often by women, have been looked down by gatekeepers of high-literature since time immemorial. Even Jane Austen wasn’t considered ‘literary’ enough in her time because her stories ostensibly revolved around women and marriage. Never mind that Austen’s writing is the most incisive look at class, social status and family in nineteenth century Britain – she’s still an author that women read, right?

Sadly, things are no different in 2018, with books like the one written by Wajid still deigned as beneath literary critics. But that’s a disservice to the reader, who’s getting robbed of some great stories and to the writer struggling to get out of a box.

Twenty-Nine Going on Thirty is a delightful look into how working women in big cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore live. Whether it’s someone like Priya who dreads her mother’s insistent questions on marriage. Or Farida, a free-spirited artist whose cheerful exterior masks an ugly family history. Or timid Namrata, who despite being twenty-nine, is just now discovering self-love. And like any other good rom-com, there’s also a drool-worthy hero. A Mr Darcy-esque single father, with a penchant for baking and a tragic past, that he too struggles to let go of.

As she weaves a narrative around these four lives, Andaleeb Wajd emerges as an excellent storyteller. She knows the beats of how young women talk, doesn’t fetishise their looks unlike other male authors, understands the vagaries of a social circle based on work-friends and roommates and has written fleshed-out characters that will make you laugh.

Even as you despair about turning thirty.

(Kitaabi Keeda is a fortnightly column where we review books for the reader who wants to get back to reading but only has a weekend – or maybe some hours in a day – to spare. Reading is for everyone, and we’re just about to tell you how.)