Gogol Ganguli vs Me

    I feel a connection to Gogol in the novel because we have similar desires and experiences. These include name changes, relationships with our parents and significant others, and travelling. Obviously, Gogol and I are not living the same life, however, these similarities help me understand the novel better and how Gogol feels throughout his life.

    One of my connections to Gogol is our desire to get our names changed. He grew up, not liking the name “Gogol” and finding it embarrassing: "He hates having to live with it, with a pet name turned good name, day after day, second after second" (Lahiri 76). He also never knew why he was named Gogol, especially since it had nothing to do with his culture. I want to get my last name changed because it reminds me of someone I am not close with, and probably never will be close with. Another similarity between our experiences with our names was nicknames. Gogol was supposed to only be his pet name and he was supposed to be called Nikhil at school and in public. This did not happen because he at first refused to be called by Nikhil, so Gogol stuck for him. For the longest time in my life, I was called Isabelle at school. At one point, I was called Izzy by my soccer coach, and it stuck. When I went into high school, my name in school was changed from Isabelle to Izzy. 

    Gogol also strongly resents his father, because his father brought him an overcoat for his birthday one year, instead of getting him something cool. Gogol is annoyed by his gift from his father, "'Thanks again,' Gogol tells his father now" (77). I resent my father for different reasons, but it shows that neither one of us were really close with our fathers, and our mothers stepped up and were kinder than them. An example of Gogol’s mother being kinder was when he went away to pursue his dreams, and she supported him through all of it (although she didn’t love the idea of him going so far away), while he didn’t seem to talk with his father much. My mother was kind when she got a job transfer just to move us to Ottawa, even though it’s not what she fully wanted - it was much more for my brother and I. Another similarity between Gogol and I is our distantness with our parents when it comes to romantic relationships. Neither of us like to tell our parents about our relationships, because it feels awkward. Does anyone like telling their parents about personal relationships though? Is any teenager that close with their parents?

    Finally, Gogol and I had to both had to travel to visit any of our extended family. Gogol’s family moved from Calcutta (India) to Cambridge (America) before he was even born, and so they were forced to travel when they wanted to visit family members. My parents were both born in Eastern Canada and moved to British Columbia before I was born because of job placements. I was born, and anytime we wanted to see my extended family, we would have to travel to the opposite side of Canada. Gogol felt very alone when travelling to visit his family because he felt as if he had to fit in, but in reality, he didn’t know these people well enough to naturally feel a sense of belonging. I, on the other hand, was very close with all my cousins and the rest of my family, although I lived a fair bit from them.

    How do you relate to Gogol from the novel? Ashima? Ashoke? Anyone else?