What makes this work is Mukherjee’s refusal to villainize anyone. Dev knows about Kabir, but only as a "Sunday thing." The unspoken agreement is that Ira returns to her real life on Monday morning. But the tragedy unfolds when Kabir asks for a Tuesday. Just one Tuesday. For a picnic.
Whether you are a hopeless romantic or a cynical realist, Mukherjee’s work forces you to ask a difficult question: If you could only love someone one day a week, would you still show up?
Mukherjee’s characters don’t do Sunday relationships because they are afraid of commitment. They do it because they are terrified of erasure .
Ira’s refusal shatters Kabir. Mukherjee writes: “He wasn’t asking for Tuesday. He was asking to exist in the daylight where her neighbors could see him. Sundays are for secrets. Tuesdays are for truth. She could give him Sunday forever, but she could never give him Tuesday.”
