They do not understand the pain of being torn from the roots by choice and the guilt and the regret associated with it. They do not understand why they still cling to their Indian ways. They do not understand their parents’ need to socialise with other Bengali families. Their identities are more American than Indian, and yet some things run too deep to be unaltered by outer influences. Gogol and Sonia are born of Indian parents and grown in America. They regret the time they could not spend with their parents and that’s why they struggle to understand their own children’s need of distance when they grow up. Together they share the happiness of seeing their children born, and together they spent nights of mourning when a telephone call announces loss of a parent. Not a single word of love is spoken or a touch exchanged in front of the world and yet, in this foreign land they are closest to each other’s souls. Together this two strangers grow into a family of four, bonded by a thread of love that need no expressing. As fast as internet is and as handy as e-mails are, they could hardly match with her feelings when she receives a letter.
A letter that will bring with it the writings from beloved families, feeling that a familiar hand passed over the paper and created those magical words, the picture of a father writing to the daughter while the mother peeps over his shoulder and supplies the words.
As all immigrants do, scouring the supermarkets for ingredients that would make the food feel like home, decorating with Indian articles, hanging on to a few Bangla magazines and books, and rejoicing in a prospect of receiving a letter. She lives with him, trying to re-create the joys and comfort of an Indian home for a hard-working man. She comes and becomes the true partner of her husband. But, in their true tradition, she is willing to brave a long journey alone on a plane that will carry her to a strange land. And Ashima, a shy, young girl, who marries like her mothers and grandmothers have done before her. He decides to expand his limits and see the world before it is too late. We trace him from a young, enthusiastic next-door lad to someone who survives a catastrophe and accepts the new life as a miracle. Though it is mainly the story of Gogol, as we went through in Part 1, ‘The Namesake” also vividly captures the journey of his parents through their lives.Īshoke, a brilliant young engineer, come to the land of dreams to make his contribution to the research work done by the best minds in the world.
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