The Namesake: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

The baby is born! After Ashima recovers from the intensity of childbirth, Ashoke enters to find her and the baby, whose name card reads only “Baby Boy Ganguli.” As Ashoke takes the baby from Ashima’s arms into his own, the baby cries out, and both parents react with alarm, but Patty laughingly reassures them. She leaves them alone, and Ashoke gently explores the strangely tiny body of his child, initially “more perplexed than moved,” as Ashima watches proudly. She falls asleep, and Ashoke is struck by the beautiful miracle of his son—a second miracle to match his own rescue from the train.

Three others visit the new family in the hospital, all Bengali friends whom Ashima and Ashoke have met in Cambridge. Dr. Gupta, a post-doc at M.I.T., gives the baby an illustrated book of Mother Goose rhymes, which Ashoke appreciates, marveling at how different this boy’s childhood will be from his own. Ashima is having the same thought as her husband, but instead of considering her child to be blessed, she pities him. She feels deeply lonely without her family there at his birth, and is heartbroken that he will grow up without them.

Neither of their families back in India has a working telephone, so they send a telegram with the news. In accordance with the Indian tradition, Ashima’s grandmother is entrusted with the naming of their child, and she has sent a letter with two names, one for a boy, and one for a girl. The letter has not yet arrived, but they are happy to wait. In the meantime, they can use a pet name—a daknam—which is the name that every Bengali is called within their family. Unlike the “good names” or bhalonam, which carry important meanings, these pet names are chosen randomly.

Patty reenters the room as they are calling the baby by one of these potential pet names—Buro, meaning old man—and asks if this is their name for him. Ashima—whom the nurses have now nicknamed “Jell-O-and-Ice-Cream Lady,” since she doesn’t eat the chicken in its skin that is provided by the hospital—explains that her grandmother will be choosing the real name. When Patty asks if she will be arriving soon, Ashima laughs, struck by the absurdity of this thought. For the next three days, Ashima is cared for in the hospital, and shown how to care for the baby.

On the fourth day, Ashima and the baby are to be discharged, but the hospital’s compiler of birth certificates, Mr. Wilcox, explains that before they can leave they must choose a name. They try to explain the situation, but Mr. Wilcox presses them to choose, asking whether they have any “backups”—a word that Ashima does not recognize. They have never thought of an alternative, and are unmoved by Mr. Wilcox’s suggestion that they name their son after a relative in accordance with European tradition (he reveals that his true name is Howard Wilcox III). In India, individual names are sacred.

Mr. Wilcox suggests they name their son after someone of importance to them, and then he leaves the room. Suddenly, Ashoke has an idea, and reaches out to his son, calling him Gogol for the first time. Ashima approves of the choice, aware of its importance for her husband, and thinking of it only as a temporary, pet name. The name now set, Patty wishes them well, and Dr. Gupta takes a photo of the new family as they exit the hospital, headed home.

The Ganguli home at this moment is an apartment on the first story of a slightly run-down, salmon-colored house near Harvard. This is the house to which Ashoke first brought Ashima, on a street of similarly pastel homes, although it was not until morning that she first saw it clearly, when she emerged into the freezing February air to glimpse dog excrement in the snow and not a soul in sight. She is disappointed by the house, which is not at all like what she had seen in American movies—it is drafty, dreary, and contains cockroaches—but she hides her disappointment, writing home about the gas-burning stove and the water clean enough to drink from the tap.

Above them live Judy and Alan Montgomery, along with their two children. Alan is a sociology professor at Harvard, and Ashoke is confused by his flip-flops and threadbare trousers, since he himself often wears a jacket and tie to meetings with his advisor. The couple is progressive—their car covered in bumper stickers—in a way that sometimes mystifies the Gangulis. They leave their children at home unsupervised, and the one glimpse of their apartment Ashima has had horrified her with its clutter of books, bottles, and dirty plates.

Dr. Gupta gives them a ride home, and as they enter their apartment with its unmade bed, Ashima is struck by its dreariness. She misses the hospital, but most of all she misses her home in India, where a traditional servant would have had the responsibility of cleaning the house. “I can’t do this,” she tells Ashoke, and when he attempts to reassure her she makes her meaning clear: she tells him to hurry up and finish their degree so that they can return home and raise their child in India.

Observing his wife, Ashoke sees that their time in America has already taken a toll. He knows she is homesick, and remembers the words of Ghosh, who had been made to return home from London by his own homesick wife. They are interrupted by the arrival of the Montgomerys, who have brought some of their old baby supplies and champagne to celebrate, though Ashoke and Ashima only pretend to drink it. A box of disposable diapers takes the place of Ashima’s family photos on the dressing table.

Three days later, everyone has returned to work as usual, and Ashima is alone with Gogol for first time. She cries all day, feeling desperately alone. When she calls Ashoke to ask him to bring home rice—she has tried to borrow from Judy, but her rice is brown—there is no answer. Ashima takes Gogol out in his pram to buy some herself, and when she is out she receives compliments from American strangers on her new baby. Slowly the routine of caring for Gogol fills her day, gives a pattern to what had before been a mass of idle hours filled with homesickness. She cooks with him, sings him Bengali songs, and begins a photo album, seeing pieces of her family in his face.

Ashima eagerly awaits the mail each day, bringing letters from her family in India, written in an alphabet that is now absent from her everyday life. She responds with careful descriptions of her son’s development, telling them that she and Ashoke are planning a trip to India after Gogol turns one. She does not tell them of their pediatrician’s warning that he will need a whole new set of immunizations against tropical disease.

When Gogol has his first ear infection and they see his pet name on the prescription, Ashima and Ashoke are reminded that the letter from Ashima’s grandmother has not yet arrived. The next day, they hear from her father that her grandmother has had a stroke and is partially paralyzed. Ashima is inconsolable, remembering her last visit to her grandmother—who rightly predicted that America would never change her traditional Indian ways—when she told Ashima to enjoy her life in America.

The community of Bengali friends in Cambridge is ever growing, as young PhD students like Ashoke fly back to Calcutta and return with wives to start their families in America. Ashima welcomes these bewildered young brides, sharing recipes to approximate Indian dishes and discussing Indian politics, music, and movies. When Gogol is six months old, the community is large enough for a proper gathering in honor of his annaprasan, his rice ceremony—the first time he will eat solid food. Dilip Nandi, a friend, plays the part of Ashima’s brother, and he feeds Gogol, who is dressed in a pale yellow Punjabi from his grandmother in Calcutta.

Gogol has been decorated according to Indian tradition, with kohl and sandalwood paste. Ten traditional dishes are arranged in front of him, including a warm rice pudding called “payesh” that Ashima will prepare for him at each birthday alongside a slice of bakery cake. The guests photograph the frowning Gogol. Judy and Alan are the only non-Bengalis present. Gogol eats eagerly during the makeshift ceremony, which brings tears to Ashima’s eyes. At its conclusion, he must choose between a clump of cold Cambridge soil, a ballpoint pen, and a dollar bill, to see if he will be a landowner, scholar, or businessman. Some call for him to take the dollar, since an American must be rich, while Ashoke urges him to take the pen. Gogol frowns, taking nothing, and begins to cry.

Gogol continues to grow, repeating words in two languages, as his parents prepare their first trip to India over winter break at M.I.T. They search for a good name to use on his passport, having given up hope of receiving the letter. Ashima knits identical sweater vests for all of her male relatives, with one special cardigan for her father, and buys him a set of expensive paintbrushes at the Harvard COOP (he is an artist). She goes shopping downtown one day, pushing Gogol and buying dozens of small gifts in anticipation of their trip. She is so engrossed in her vision of it that she nearly misses her stop, and in her rush to exit the train she leaves all of her purchases behind. Humiliated, she is amazed when Ashoke’s call to the MBTA lost and found leads to the objects’ safe return.

One night a call from India wakes them, and before Ashoke tells her the news Ashima feels instinctively that her grandmother has died. She begins to comfort Gogol, who has been awakened by the phone’s ring. When the phone is handed to her, Ashima’s dread is mixed with excitement at hearing her mother call her by her pet name, Monu. However, the voice she hears is her brother Rana’s. They talk for a few minutes, but Rana’s pauses suggest to her that there is something he is not saying—and there is no reason he would call unless something is wrong. She presses Ashoke, who seems deeply tired, for more information. He holds her tightly against the bed and tells her the real reason for the call: her father is dead.

They leave for India six weeks earlier than planned to attend the funeral. With no time to find a good name, they get an express passport with the name Gogol Ganguli. Before they leave, Ashima takes the stroller and a bag with the paintbrushes and cardigan for her father on the train to Central Square, and deliberately leaves them behind. As they sit on the plane, she checks her watch, calculating the time in India, but refusing to picture her mourning family. Telling him that she no longer wants to go, Ashima turns to the window as Ashoke takes her hand and the plane takes off, Gogol screaming with the change in air pressure.