Is a Few Months Enough Time…?

Woooow Gogol is quite the ladies man!

So far Gogol has been in three serious relationships: Ruth, Maxine, and now Moushumi. After two relationships that ended in a heart breaked Gogol, big mama Ashima decides to step in. She sets him up with an old childhood friend. The two immediately hit it off and have now been dating for a solid three months. Since they have been friends, even though they don't remember, since they were little kids, I am sure the two had a lot in common and easily hit it off.

A few months in to their relationship, they start to discover more about each others past. Moushumi grew up in England and later moved to America. There she studied at Brown and then moved to Paris where she met  guy named Graham. Now who is Graham you say? Oh no one except for the guy that Moushumi proposed to! Yup, SHE proposed. Must have been pretty in love, eh? Anyway, they move back to New York and start to plan their wedding. They also go and visit Calcutta and her family where it all goes down hill and the wedding is eventually called off. Oh by the way, all this happened just the summer before her and Gogol met…

Is this enough time? Now personally if this happened to me I would be absolutely devastated and it would definitely take me some time to recover. Lahiri describes Moushumi after the break up saying " All summer she went to the movies by herself, sometimes as many as three a day. She bought TV Guide every week and read it from cover to cover, planning her nights around her favorite shows. She began to subsist on a diet of raita and Triscuits. She grew thinner than she'd ever been in her life, so that in the few pictures taken of her in that period her face is faintly unrecognizable (Lahiri 218)". Well yeah she is like this! I would be too! What surprises me is how eager she is to jump in to another relationship after such a terrible heart break.

Does Moushumi have other intentions? Something she's not telling us about? We will see!

Happy reading!!

Ooooh Gogul…

Or should I say Nikhil. So as of now, Gogul has legally changed his name to Nikhil and is a completely new person. His attitude, personality, and perspective on life has completely been turned around. It's funny to think how something as small as a name, which are just letters, can make such a huge impact on somebody's life. Lahiri writes, "He wonders if this is how it feels for an obese person to become thin, for a prisoner to walk free. "I'm Nikhil," he wants to tell the people who are walking their dogs, pushing children in their strollers, throwing bread to the ducks"(Lahiri 102).  I find it somewhat comical how much more confident Nikhil becomes with this new name. Imagine if that is all it would take for the average person to become more happy, more hopeful. Do you think that everyone would do the same as Gogul did?

I really like how Lahiri compares this transformation to an obese person becoming skinny. Have you ever watched the show The Biggest Loser? These people join the show morbidly obese, and leave in the best shapes they have ever been in their whole life. Now lets go back to when they were fat. All these poor people talk about is how embarrassed they are to go out in public and participate in certain activities. In some ways, this directly relates to how the new Nikhil felt with his original name Gogul! He was embarrassed to even hear his name aloud in public. Lahiri says, "Warmth spreads from the back of Gogul's neck to his cheeks and his ears. Each time the name is uttered, he quietly winces" (Lahiri 91). Now that Gogul is Nikhil, he feels like he can conquer the world, do anything he wants, and most importantly get any girl he wants ;).

If only it were that simple to change your life around… Guess its easier said than done!

Happy reading!

So far the book The Namesake has been fantastic! This book documents an Indian couple, Ashoke and Ashima, through their journey in America, the birth of their son,  the good times, and the bad times.

Early in the novel, Ashoke tells the story of his bear death train accident that left him with sleepless nights and countless memories of this tragic day. before the whole catastrophe, Ashoke met a man named Ghosh. Ghosh was a wise man who gave Ashoke advice that simply translated to  "go live your life and don't worry about anything else". Ghosh said to Ashoke, " Do yourself a favor. before it's too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much as the world as you can. You will not regret it. One day it will be too late (Lahiri 16)". I really enjoy those quote because I feel it is extremely relatable not only to myself but to pretty much everyone. I feel like we all get caught up in our lives and lose sight of all the opportunities around us. Sometimes it 's okay just to let go and travel and be happy and not worry about what is happening behind you because if you keep thinking about it, odds are your going to find something worthy of holding you back.

Another idea expressed in this novel that really got me thinking is Ashmia and how much she feels like an outsider. Lahiri says, " But  nothing feels normal to Ashima. For the past eighteen months, ever since she had arrived in Cambridge, nothing has felt normal at all  ( Lahiri 5-6)".  This quote is also very relatable. Being a teenager in high school, and in my situation at a new school, in the beginning you  can feel somewhat like a foreigner. Everyone around you is already accustomed to their surroundings  and your still getting used to it. In Ashima's case,  all she can think about is her home and family. As the novel progresses you can see that Ashima starts to become happier when she is around people like her, of the same race and culture. Same with school, once you find the right group of friends that are just like yourself, it can make all the difference.