Gogol’s identity change to “Nikhil” becomes official in Chapters 5 and 6.
During Gogol’s senior year in high school, he pretends to be a college student and kisses a college girl at a party just before the kiss, he tells her that his name is “Nikhil.” During Gogol’s tenth grade year, the Ganguli family travels to India for eight months Gogol and Sonia feel out of place and can’t wait to return to America. Gogol’s fourteenth birthday is such a party, and he meets a shy girl his own age named Moushumi, who becomes his wife years later. One of the Gangulis’ Bengali customs is hosting house parties for all of their Bengali American friends.
Although his parents decide to give him the formal Bengali name “Nikhil” when he begins kindergarten, Gogol refuses to respond to the name so his school teachers call him by his legal name, “Gogol.” Gogol’s younger sister is born, a girl named Sonali and called “Sonia.” Although Ashoke and Ashima try to raise their children according to Bengali cultural practices, they often find themselves competing with Gogol and Sonia’s desires to live like their American friends. In Chapters 3 and 4, Gogol grows up as a Bengali American child with a name that is neither Bengali nor American. Although they plan to give Gogol a formal name to put on his passport before their trip to Calcutta, Ashima’s father’s sudden death forces them to leave for Calcutta in a rush, and the name “Gogol” is put on his passport. Because their newborn son needs a name on his birth certificate in order to be released from the hospital, the Gangulis decide to give him the pet name “Gogol,” after the Russian author whose short stories Ashoke was reading when his life nearly ended on the train. As the novel begins, the two of them are going to a Boston hospital because Ashima is in labor with their first child.Īshima’s grandmother has sent a letter from India indicating what the child’s name should be, but her letter is lost in the mail. A few years later, his parents and Ashima’s parents arranged their marriage, and Ashima left Calcutta to join Ashoke in Boston. Ashoke decided to move to Boston and begin graduate school after barely surviving a catastrophic train accident in India. The Namesake covers five primary periods in the life of the Ganguli family:Ĭhapters 1 and 2 narrate the story of the Gangulis’ early days in America.
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