The Namesake By Jhumpa Lahiri (4.5/5)

The Malaldy of Naming

Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri was born and brought up in England and Rhode Island. Though, born Nilanjana Sudheshna in 1967, she changed her name to Jhumpa soon after. Lahiri is known for her poignant stories that are trivial and eloquently poised. Her novel Interpreter Of Malaldies was critically acclaimed all over the world for which she was also awarded the Pulitzer. Using her soft, evocative style and subtle descriptions, The Namesake, her second book comes out as just another family saga, caught inbetween trials and tribulations and struggling to break away from the trammels of convention. This evidently ambushed predictableness, makes the book special.
Life is one big hullabaloo. A homogenous brew of pungence that stays with you forever. And in this journey called life, ‘change’ plays a major role. Change is ineveitable, and in the changing circumstances, it is better to understand the nuances of changing time or else, the consequeces can be dire. Resisting change, resists individual development and changing openly is merely stepping onto the next step of human development.
The Ganguly’s are one such Indian family, having their ‘traditional’ conservativenss. Ashok, the bread winner, a physisist is ready to leave his hometown- the gullies of Calcutta, heading towards newer opputunities that are half the world away in Massacheusets.
And ofcourse his endeavor is incomplete without the cooperation of his wife Ashima, a petite bengalli, who bravely yet evidently, sacrifices all the Indian dreams that she had spent her nuptial nights stitching. Thus begins a journey, that meticulously meanders itself around the complexity and agrresion of human emotions yet sets one golden principle aside that the greatest journeys are the ones that bring you home!
Ashok is the ordinary husband. He loves his wife but loves something else too. Only this time it is not a human, but a book. The Overcoat- by Nikolai Gogol, that irks him to embark on a journey that shall help him learn and widen his perspective, beyond the Indian ways and traditions. And here he is, in the midst of rush hour American traffic, while Ashima is waiting for him so very patiently, even though the labour contractions are virtually tearing through her stomach.
And thus the protagonist of the book is born, who is nameless! The two new parents cannot help but nickname their son Gogol for a letter sent by the maternal grandmother containing her granson’s name is lost.
Young Gogol is indignant. He feels conscious of himself. Why on Earth did his parents name him after an eccentric Russian Author? But Ashok has the perfect answer. To him, Nikolai’s works are his sole motivators. They taught him that he was wasting his life and that he lived through the dreadful accident just so that he could mould his perspective into a productive life!
But nonchallant Gogol is unperturbed. He is determined to change his name. And author Jhumpa Lahiri relates to this as something of her own life. The day she had taken the decision to change her name, the agony everybody around her felt and the sheer indignance she had to overcome.
Gogol’s nonchallace earns him a name Nikhil (meaning limtless). And this is from where his story begins. And what is eloquently said between the lines is that sometimes, it takes a jolt to change a person.
Gogol’s new personality as Nikhil earns him the best degrees, girlfriends and dreams, but he lacks the hint of Indian values, that his father had.
Life suddenly takes a drastic turn and we find ourselves in a position that when the bread winner of the Gangully family after having tried to instill his morals, leaves for paradise.
Nikhil is shattered and his life changes. He begins to think of his lonely mother caught inbetween the void created after his father’s death. And thus he gives up everyhting for her and decides to embark on a journey that shall take him to where his father began. His sole companion being, a battered copy of The Overcoat that had once saved his father from delusion.
The Namesake for me is thus a namesake itself. Nikhil’s realization brings him closer to my heart making me think ahead of my time while wondering how to conquer the unforseen delusions in my life. And it is needless to say, that the book brings the protagonist back home. Truly, a journey in itself, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Namesake is the ticket to realizing your dreams and aquring what is simply termed sanity.