Hiranmaya

M: Hello! Very exciting, our first Book Swap for our blog! For our readers, our book swaps feature our unfiltered thoughts on our favorite reads, transcribed. We hope it helps you feel like you’re hanging out with us, favorite drink in hand, catching up and discussing the stories that made us think.

M: Hi Aish! I recommended this book to you because it is my all time favorite read. One of the many reasons why is because it was the first book where I felt so seen – both in terms of the characters’ backgrounds and the cultural struggles they go through. Hailing from similar backgrounds, did you have that experience as well? Were there specific characters you resonated most with?

A: I definitely understand what you mean in terms of being ‘seen.’ In terms of what it means to be Indian and American, this book really captures that South Asian American identity. I began to resonate with the characters from the beginning. My parents and I moved here from India when I was so young. This book reflected that transition space. My parents didn’t have family or friends here and tried to form a smaller indian community here. Like the Bengali family in the story. I also saw myself in Gogol’s character, especially in his struggle with his identity in trying to be American and push away from his Bengali identity for so long. I totally understand that. We both went to school in Boston and we know how white it can be. Trying to find yourself in a space like can be very difficult. 

M: I think it is interesting that we have two different perspectives even coming from a similar background. I was born here so I’ve never had the experience of moving from a whole new country or witness the transition my parents went through. My parents moved here 4 years before I was born, so they had already gone through that initial transition period before my memories began. It’s interesting that you were there for that. For me, the beginning of this book was more a window into what it might have been like for my parents.

M: Starting at the title, The Namesake. One of the primary arcs for Gogol, the main character, is his relationship with his name. We both obviously have Indian names and we’ve briefly talked about this before, but what was your relationship with your name growing up? You also go by a nickname. What informed that choice? 

A: Both of us know the struggle of the first day of school when the teacher pauses in the roster, and you know. It’s like “hey thats me!” For me, it was important that I did not allow people to mispronounce my name. I made people know it, learn it, and pronounce Aishwarya. Once they were close to me, then they got to call me Aish. I definitely did not experience the negativity towards my name the way Gogol does, but it does carry a lot of weight and importance for me. With Indian names and the way parents present them as a gift to their child, there is a lot of thought and emotion behind that. I am lucky to have had that understanding at a younger age. 

M: Mm, I agree. I did not have as negative a perception of my name like Gogol had, but like he changed his name in his young adulthood, I was creative in elementary school. I always tell this story as a joke, but there is a tinge of guilt behind it. When I was in 3rd-5th grade, I told everyone my middle name is Rose. It was such a common middle name in the town I was raised in – Rose, Grace, Elizabeth…

A: You’re so right I felt like those were everyone’s middle names. 

M: Right, so growing up where I did, Meera Rose Kumanan felt like the way to fit in. And at that age, none of my friends or classmates questioned it. Now, when I tell this story, I imagine how my family would have felt had they known I was parading around a false name in school. I do have a middle name and it is my grandmother’s name, so there is a lot of emotional attachment to that. But when I was younger, I was so quick to write off that deeper meaning, like Gogol did with his. 

M: Jumping to the end – without giving out spoilers – this book’s ending shatters my heart like no other book ever has before. What was the lesson you took away?

A: The ending is obviously not what you expect, it was shocking. 

I think what I gained from it – and we’ve spoken about this in the past – is that life is just a little bit unfair. Life will always put you in situations you never expected to be in.Your identity is the only thing that will help you move on and into the next stage of your life. 

I felt like regardless, Gogol was going to be okay. Yes it was heartbreaking, but the journeys that each character went through to get to that point felt like they endured so much and learned so much about themselves. I found hope that they would persevere and learn from everything. 

M: I agree. The other point that stuck with me each time I read this book is that the ending is heartbreaking, but not dramatically heartbreaking. It is a perfect reflection of reality. If Jhumpa Lahiri had ended this book in any other way it would have been a disservice to how real the rest of the book is. It was one of the first works I read that forced me to confront the idea that sometimes, life doesn’t work out, and we need to be okay with that. When things fell apart, it was never really anyone else’s fault, it was them simply being human. I had to learn that it was okay to let go of the stringent checklist I have, and a lot of the characters had, for their lives. 

A: This book shows what everyone expects out of their lives and then we see how almost everything falls apart in some way. You probably agree with this, I think it was important to see that. In a way, it was almost a relief. All these things we have pictured for our lives might not work out exactly, but we will be okay. 

M: Yes definitely! But that sense of relief, I will admit, did not come to me for a couple weeks after I read the book for the first time. 

A: Oh yea. 

M: Even the mistakes each of the characters made, it came from a good place. I can imagine myself making the same decisions. I think we see that with Moushumi’s entire storyline, so many relatable conflicts and understandable actions she took – regardless of the morality behind it. I also liked where it ended in terms of his age. At that point – in your thirties – I imagined that my life should somewhat be steady. Seeing him at that age with his life not panning out the way he imagined was…

A: I think that was important to see. I think what stuck out to me, especially as the two of us are on this journey to explore books for this age…

M: Much of the book details Gogol’s twenties.

A: Exactly. It was cool to see and we both learned a lot from it.

M: You read this book recently. I read this book when I was a senior in high school, so it was a different stage of life. Each time I read it, a different part of the book sticks out to me. When I read it then, I focused more on his college years, just imagining what it would be like and also grappling with his identity. Now, when I read it, I focus more on his relationships with others, whether that be with his parents or whoever he meets. Compared to then, I am more secure in my own identity that watching Gogol struggle with that is more reminiscent for me than a prediction as it was four years ago. The book moves throughout his life, from birth to adulthood. I wonder, how do you think you would have reacted if you had read it earlier, or vice versa – five years down the road?

A: I do think, like a lot of things, I read this book at the right time. I was going through a lot and growing to accept who I was. This book was helpful and sort of helped put trauma in the past. Knowing that things didn’t pan out the way I wanted them, but I wouldn’t have it anyway. I will definitely read this again in the future and I’m excited to see how I’ve changed. I think it would’ve been so cool to read this at a younger age, mainly for the representation of a South Asian protagonist, because we didn’t read a lot of South Asian American stories growing up. 

M: Definitely. On some final thoughts, the reason why this book is so special to me, is that when I read it, I felt like this book was written just for me. In a definitely narcissistic way, I feel such a deep connection to this book, you know? As if I was meant to read every word. It is also one of those books that you want everyone to read, but at the same time, you want to guard it as your book. I sometimes feel like I know Gogol personally. He spends a lot of time on the Amtrak from Boston to New Haven, and that’s the exact line I took back and forth from college and home, just the other direction. Northeast Regional baby! And he lives in Boston, like we did for four years. And he lives in New York, near where I grew up, and the city that I’ll be moving to. So that geographic familiarity also makes this special. 

I hope everyone has a book like that – where it seems as if it was meant to be written for you and you were meant to read it. 

For example, Pride and Prejudice – we both love – but when I read it I don’t get that feeling that it was written for me. It’s everyone’s book, and that sense of community that builds is also strong and important. But with this book, it’s somehow an intimate relationship between author and reader. 

A: Yea. I think we all have that book in our repertoire hopefully. If you don’t, I hope you can find it and I hope we can help you on that journey with our blog! 

M: Yes! That is why we created this platform, we want everyone to find that book that seems it was written just for them!!

A: Closing thoughts. What’s so beautiful about that book is the way the narratives are woven together. From Gogol’s parents and everything they’ve lived through and left behind before they have Gogol. It’s very generational, the narration goes from the parents to the child. That spoke to me. So often, we forget to think about what our parents endured…

M: For us to be here, to thrive.

A: Yea, exactly. So it was important for me to recognize and try to visualize through this book that experience for them. And see how that trauma carries from parents to children in a way. Please check this book out! Broaden your horizons, as always! This book has meant a lot to the two of us and I hope it impacts you too.

M: Finally, because it’s our first book swap, we are sending out these positive vibrations into the cyber space of our website and Instagram that our literary hero, The Namesake author, Jhumpa Lahiri, hears this and knows how much this book impacted me and Aish. And somehow, someway, we get to talk to her in real life, or Zoom, or really any platform!! Until next time 🙂