A Year of Wednesdays

A FLIGHT FROM NEW DELHI TO NEW YORK.Two strangers, Seat 7A and Seat 7B, who have nothing in common. Absolutely nothing. Except they are both hoping the seat next to theirs remains empty.It doesn’t.Mid-flight turbulence and infant incontinence forces them to interact—the cool Wall Street guy and the mom-with-the-drool-stained-sweater-and-ordinary-aspirations. Blistering wit, opposing views, and some unexpectedly poignant admissions keep them addictively engaged and hopelessly sleep deprived through the fifteen-hour journey.Touch down . . . and they leave the cabin without a backward glance, jumping right back into their dramatically different lives. Never to meet again. But somehow they continue to travel together—interlocked forever through an inexplicable connectedness. Can one meeting change everything forever? The Japanese have a term for it: Ichi-go ichi-e. One time, one encounter, lasts a lifetime.