THE NAMESAKE (Part 3)

Ok, so my account deleted my blog post for the fourth time. I don't know what's going on but hopefully this one stays.

QUICK SUMMARY:

Gogol moves uptown in New York and now works for a large architecture firm, he stays close to his family, visiting his mom and Sonia almost every weekend. He ended his relationship with Maxine a little after the death of his father, Ashoke, and starts an affair with a married architect. The affair comes to an end when Ashima sets Gogol up with a family friend, Moushumi. Their relationship builds up quickly and they marry after a year. Moushumi and Gogol have dinner with Donald and Astrid, friends of Moushumi, and Gogol notices her strange behavior with them. He becomes upset with it and starts realizing that their relationship makes him feel lonely and frustrated. After some time, Moushumi becomes despondent as well and crosses paths with a former schoolmate who used to flirt back with her. They start to have an affair, Gogol later on learns from Moushumi about the affair and they drift apart. Gogol spends another holiday with his family with Sonia's husband, Ben, and comes across the book of Nikolai Gogol his father gave him.

SO. For the fourth time. I will talk about the last few chapters I read. I'm really glad Maxine and Gogol broke up. As amazing and adventurous their relationship was, Gogol didn't have his own 'world' with Maxine. Everything was concentrated on her. In the book, Lahiri pointed out that Gogol would do certain things Maxine preferred him to do, not what he wanted to do. I feel that Ashoke's death was what made Gogol realize his place in the family and what his heritage means. Home and belonging.

As I was starting to think Gogol was starting to have a good, independent life. You know, taking his love life slow and just focusing on family and his firm first. There he goes and starts an affair with a married architect. Cheating is prohibited to me. I'm against it no matter the situation. If you are unhappy with someone, then might as well end the relationship. Come straight to the point and tell the partner about your troubles. I find Gogol mind numbingly dumb at this point. It's not his place to be ruining a relationship between a married couple. Coming in between two people and knowing that person is in a relationship is considered the most evil thing to do other than someone cheating on their partner.

I'm glad Ashima stepped in and poked Gogol with her curiosity about his love life, making Gogol end the affair with the architect. I found myself feeling quite relieved but very uncomfortable about the blind date. Relieved because Gogol stopped messing around with the architect but uncomfortable because, to be honest, of the blind date. Blind dates are risky, I'd rather know what the person looks like. Yes, I know, personality over looks. Though, I have to step in and say that looks matter a lot. I guess I'm pretty flexible when it comes to my opinion on the 'appearance' of the person. Say, someone isn't the best looking person in the world. But, if you get to know that person, they immediately start looking better and better to the point they're everything you ever want to look at the rest of your life. Which is what I find cool about love. Looks start to not matter after you start seeing them a different way.

I was glad Gogol found Moushumi, not only did he find a great girl, but someone who shared many things in common with. Especially when it came to childhood struggles laced to fitting in as an Indian-American kid. She was previously engaged to a white banker, Graham. Though, the relationship ended because he was uncomfortable with Moushumi's culture. Gogol and Moushumi's relationship develops fast as they go out a lot. Their dates sound pretty fun, not outgoing and adventurous, but the relaxing type of fun.

What I really need to get off my chest, is how Moushumi cheats on Gogol after they marry. I also find that they married too quickly, that is probably why they ended up this way. They married and burst out their love for each other but it burned out quickly from the rush. Like when you start sprinting down the street and run out of breath faster than when you jog at a steady pace. As I said before, I'm always and will always be against cheating. What I also found out, Gogol gets cheated on just like how the married architect's husband was cheated on. Karma's got him. Karma bit his butt and said "You get what you deserve.". I find this quite ironic, really. I guess it made him realize how much pain he caused the man married to the architect. And, now, Gogol is feeling the same pain and confusion. Asking himself 'what went wrong?' and 'when did everything go wrong?'. I do feel bad for Gogol, but at the same time I really think he deserves it. I was satisfied when Moushumi confessed. At least she stopped hiding from him and came straight to the point.

It was good that Gogol found out, now he has nothing else to depend on other than his family and his father's birthday present to him on his birthday. The book of Nikolai Gogol. I keep thinking that all these bad things that happen to Gogol are just wake up calls for him to realize how important his own world of his own background and culture is. I also think they're meant to tell him that, whatever bad thing happens, a greater blessing will come. Just like what his father meant when he named Gogol.

- Kiara