A New Journey

Hi Friends! Today I will be talking about the novel The Namesake written by Jhumpa Lahiri, specifically the first four chapters. The beginning chapters portray the life of a newly married Bengali couple, who immigrated to America. Lahiri targets upon Ashoke and Ashima’s immigrant life, raising their child in a foreign land, and how the culture is affected throughout the journey. Ashoke was already settled in America for a couple of years, studying at MIT, and accomplishing his goals to become a professor. Whereas, Ashima is a typical housewife, struggling to assimilate herself  into the American Society. This specific section of the novel is very relatable to my parents life experience. They came from India alone in 2000 without me and my brother, not having any money, no job security for either, and minimal connections. They had to live on rent, work day and night, and were paid $7/hr in cash because they did not have their work permit. Also, my mom had a hard time adapting at first because she came here not knowing anyone, leaving her luxurious lifestyle in India to support my dad.

Another connection between my parents and the Ganguli’s is their struggle to keep their heritage and culture alive within the children. Ashima is constantly compromising her values for Gogol and Sonia. An example, would be when Ashima would buy american food from the supermarket to make Gogol and Sonia lunch “they stand at the deli to buy cold cuts, and in the mornings Ashima makes sandwiches with bologna or roast beef”’ (Lahiri, 65). Ashima and Ashoke were failed to be impressed with it, so to keep the culture alive in their children they sent them to Bengali school every saturday “they send him to Bengali language and cultural lesson every other Saturday” (Lahiri, 65). My parents are very similar to the Gangulis, they would always send me and my brother to Hindi school, and we go to this day! Also, my mom constantly gets upset when she makes home cooked food, but I and my brother go outside to eat Shawarma, Go for Greek, Subway, you name it.

Lastly, another major connection between the my parents and Gangulis is their excitement to host brown parties every now and then. In the novel, when it was Gogol’s 14th birthday Ashima and Ashoke found an excuse to throw a lavish Bengali party for Gogol. “like most events in his life, it is another excuse for his parents to throw a party for their Bengali friends” (Lahiri, 72). This relates to my parents because recently on my birthday, they threw a lavish brown party to celebrate my 17th. They believe that hosting brown parties allows me to connect with people from the Indian culture, and I will learn to adapt to the culture slowly by hanging out with other Indian kids.

When one decides to immigrate to a new country, they should accept that children will not always be accepting to their own culture because they want to fit in with the rest of the kids. Ashoke and Ashima tried very hard to adapt to the american culture, and still keep the Bengali culture alive within their children, but the children were slowly drifting away from it.

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