The Namesake:Book review

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.

The book "The Namesake" was resting amongst other untouched books in my shelf for a while.Rummaged haphazardly to take the book "Shantaram", all of a sudden the books on my rack collapsed and there I was pulled into a task of arranging and making it tidy.The Namesake caught my eyes and I read and Voila,here you go with a review.

The story revolves around few characters like Ashima Ganguly,Ashoke Ganguly,Nikhil aka Gogol and Sonia.Ashima hails from an orthodox bengali family...She was married to Ashoke Ganguly.After their marriage she was asked to move to an alien land with her husband.

She spent her major part of her life in Kolkatta and there she was entangled to migrate to a new world,a world full of new faces,new culture,new language et al.She bades goodbye to Kolkatta and moves to US.

She still maintains to wear saree and never foregts her vermillion.The author has beautifully explained the life of an orthodox couple during 1960 and who lives in abroad .It was when expressing love between married couple is totally out of their mind.

It is a bengali custom to have two names for a person .One considered as a good name, the other as a pet name. Ashima and Ashoke were blessed with a male baby. They call him as Gogol and adjudge it as his pet name. They wait for a good name from Ashima's granny...But destiny plays and his pet name becomes his good name. Ashoke names his child after his favourite writer Nikolai Gogol.

Gogol shows great aversion towards his name and he changes it to Nikhil. His sister was named as Sonali who was later called as Sonia.All of a sudden his father's death bring a great void in their life.He comes to know the fact behind his name...He realizes that name matters least and there are lots more to encounter other than his own name. But everything goes outta his hand and that brings a great emptiness in him and which makes him to think about his father and his name.

At the end after reading the book,I felt name is just for namesake and all you need to succeed in your life is morale and principles(It is my saying ,not from the book mind ya)...loved the character Ashima,her perfect Indian thoughts and culture.

To me "The Namesake" is an Okeyish sort of book.Expected something big from the author but after flipping through the pages I found that something is missing.
I am in due to read "Unaccustomed Earth"...Expecting lots from the book.Also I have added "The Namesake" movie in my never ending must to watch movie lsit.
Ciao for now