The Namesake (1-4)

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve read chapters 1-4 of The Namesake. It’s a story about the life of a boy by the name of Gogol. Coming from an immigrant family, Gogol wishes to fit in with the rest of his peers, whereas his parents wish to retain certain Bengali cultures. Right away, I could make some connections with my own life. While in the states, Ashima feels homesick, craving a very simple and cheap food from her homeland. Although I was born and raised here in Canada, our family definitely follows Chinese cultures at home. Furthermore, we’d often go live in China for 3-5 weeks at a time every year when my sister and I were both younger and had more free time. Even now, I’ll often crave simple, everyday food from china such as 油条 (yóutiáo). As a literal translation, it means “oil stick” and is a pretty accurate representation of what they actually look and taste like. This combined with 稀饭 (xīfàn) - otherwise known as congee in western cultures - made for a great breakfast during my time in China, or sometimes even here in Canada.

Later on in the novel, the story shifts mostly to Gogol’s school life. Despite his reluctance on going by a new name of Nikhil at school, his parents insist the teacher calls him by that name. It’s pretty clear that he’s very uncomfortable being called by that name. “Gogol looks down at his sneakers. The way the principal pronounces his new name is different from the way his parents say it, the second part of it longer, sounding like 'heel'” (Lahiri, 57-58). Back in kindergarten and early elementary school, I went by my middle name (Yingkai). I’m not quite sure why, but I can imagine it’s for the same reason Ashima and Ashoke wanted Gogol to go by Nikhil instead… to keep the cultural heritage alive or something. Just like Nikhil, no one could really pronounce it that well and I definitely felt uncomfortable with a Chinese name while everyone had a “normal” name. As a matter of fact, my family and I happened to bump into my old kindergarten teacher not too long ago. It really threw me off when they called me Yingkai, a name I hadn’t heard in a long, looong time.

One thing I didn’t really like was the little amount of detail throughout their trip to India. I felt it would’ve been nice if more of the trip was described, so I could see some of the similarities between their trip and my trips to China. From the little bit that was described, I could already identify some similarities between the two countries: “Gogol is aware of the dangers involved: his cousins have told him about the bandits that lurk in Bihar, so that his father wears a special garment under his shirt, with hidden pockets to carry cash, and his mother and Sonia remove their gold jewels" (Lahiri, 84). Similarly in China, you’ll see people wearing their bags in front, instead of in the back like we usually see here. As a matter of fact, you’ll see a lot of tourists in downtown Ottawa that still do the same. Just like in India, people are really paranoid about their stuff getting stolen (probably for good reason too) and try to do this to prevent it.

In the next part of their little trip, they visit the Taj Mahal. While in Agra, “Gogol notices in certain restaurants that they are the only Indians apart from the serving staff” (Lahiri, 85). Once again, this is really similar to another one of the 7 wonders of the world - the Great Wall of China. At least from my experiences, all 3 times I’ve been there, there’s definitely been a lot more foreigners than native Chinese people. I guess it’s probably because most of the native population is just so used to seeing it already?

I'm still feeling pretty indifferent towards the book. Although I can relate in a lot of ways, I can't really find myself to get interested in the story itself. Maybe through the next 8 chapters it'll grow on me more.

Works Cited

Daniel. “88 Congee – Hotel Quality Hawker Food.” DanielFoodDiary.com, danielfooddiary.com/2010/07/21/88-congee/. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

CBS. “Johnny Galecki GIF.” GIPHY, GIPHY, 2 Feb. 2017, giphy.com/gifs/cbs-3osxYtpKtYLe40VHeU. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

Avy. “7 things you should know before visiting Cambodia.” Avytravel, 3 Nov. 2016, avythetravelbug.com/2016/11/. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

“Colesville Travel photos.” Yelp, 31 Mar. 2016, www.yelp.com/biz_photos/colesville-travel-silver-spring?select=UsBThPoH2YrhvzB3LiACmg. Accessed 30 Sept. 2017.