Who is Moushimi?

Moushimi first enters the novel "The Namesake" as a calm, shy and docile little girl. With her sweet british accent and her nose buried in a book what harm could she do? She returns later on in the book as an adult and makes relatively the same first impression, yet with an air of maturity to her. However we see her character drastically change from the time she agrees to meet Gogol for their blind date, and the final chapter of the novel.

There are a lot of good things that we can say about Moushimi; she is intelligent, independent, and above anything she has a way of getting what she wants. On a more negative note, she proves herself to be deceiving, and disloyal. While she has a certain cleverness about her, she does not always use it in the best ways. Sure, all of her academic achievements are worth more than just the certificates handed out, but Moushimi also finds a terrible use of her intelligence. After a re-encounter with an old friend (or more than that I guess) of hers she begins a process of lying and deceiving her husband. Slowly but surely an affair with Dimitri,a man she once knew in college, and now works with her, develops. Moushimi does her best to hide this from her husband; thinking of elaborate lies, which inevitably keep her up at night, in fear that her husband will poke holes in her story. She always seems to have some sort of alibi all planned out for her, with small peices of evidence to prove it. Sometimes she only tells her husband half of where she's been, making it seem somewhat honest. She isn't technically lying to him; she was at the grocery store, just not the whole time, after all, he didn't ask where she was before that. But just because she is not completely lying does not mean she is loyal. She bends the truth to hide the fact that she is having an affair. On top of that Gogol, was a man who loved his wife dearly, and in fact often questioned what he had done wrong whenever she seemed distant. This man blamed himself for subtle nuances in her attitude throughout the marriage. He was loyal to her the entire marriage; helping to provide for her, wanting what was best for her, and even dealing with the things he found irritating but that she loved ( her obscure group of friends for example). Moushimi's husband goes out of his way to try and make her happy; making reservations at a restaurant Moushimi chose based on her friend's suggestion, buying her an expensive pashmina are just a few examples. Both of these things she rejects. Moushimi finds any minor detail about them to complain about; the cold air in the restaurant, the waiter not looking her in the eye, the pashmina leaving little purple flecks of fabric on her dress. She does not appreciate what her husband does for her, and ultimately does not return the favour of his loyalty.


The question remains, however; why is she like this? My guess is that it is because she is highly indecisive. Moushimi can get what she wants, but she is never sure exactly what she wants. So she ends up making very rash short term decisions. The affair with Dimitri is an example of this. She was unsure of how she felt being married to Gogol, whether she had made the correct decision or not. She ends up admiring the freedom of others, the freedom that she had once had when she was in Paris. So perhaps she is trying to relive that freedom and by sleeping with another man she has an escape from being tied down.
Would it not be fair to say that maybe she is trying to fill some sort of void as well? The woman has obviously had emotional troubles in her past, whether it has been self confidence during childhood or her emotional unbalance after Graham left her. Either way, those types of issues do not go away quickly, and certainly not if they have persisted from youth into adulthood. Personally I believe that she saw Gogol as a "quick fix". Meaning, as a recovery from her failed engagement with Graham she sought out another man that would help her feel as if she could make a relationship last. And Gogol was the perfect fit; a man who was sensitive and romantic, he was passive, and he was Bengali (with the same attitude towards culture as Moushimi) so there was no fear of him fleeing the many traditions. But since Gogol was no more than a short term fix for a long term problem she began to feel empty once again. Aside from out right saying "the affair causes her to feel slightly at peace" (Lahiri, 266), there is a lovely metaphor in the novel that illustrates this, where Moushimi is Dimitri's house, and she notices a gap in his bookshelf, which she immediately fills with another book. I am not sure how much clearing up that needs but just incase, what it is trying to say is that Moushimi is missing something in her life, she is not sure what, but this affair is one of the things that she thinks might fill that empty space.
Independence and intelligence; just a few of the personality traits that make Moushimi enticing and charming to others. Despite their ability to make desirable, and a woman to be admired her uses of them become a downfall; independence to disloyalty, and intelligence to deceit. Whatever the reason behind this may be I believe it in our rights to say that these two traits cause misery to those around her.

"In so many ways his family's life feels like a string of accidents, unforeseen, unintended, one incident begetting another"

There are many ways to interpret this quote, and I guess it all comes down to each individual person's view on life.That being said I am looking at this from a complete personal perception. The way I see it is that it is Gogol's final realisation of all the little moments in life that seemed like  complete twists of fate, or even just utterly insignificant, were in fact the string of necessary tragedies, successes, failures, and everything in between that put him where he is in the end. What I guess I'm trying to say is that everyone seems to think that they're working towards each individual goal at a time, but in reality we are slowly moving closer and closer to something much bigger. Let me give you an example; I think one of the main concepts in this novel is the notion of one needing to find their own identity, who they really are. You see that Ashima finally achieves this in chapter twelve, when she states that she is finally representative of her name ("she who has no borders"). But how did she get there? Well it was not easy I can tell you that; this is a woman who left her home, her family, basically everything she has ever known and loved or found comfort in. She left all of that behind to come to America, adopt new customs she did not quite understand, raise children in a difficult time, and eventually she loses her husband. Ashima must have seen it all as absolute calamity at the time. Throughout travelling from Calcutta to Boston I can imagine her dreading that next chapter of her life; having to go through early marriage, pregnancy, the early years of childhood, all without her parents. As her kids grew older and begin to rebel she must have questioned where she went wrong, and how she could undo it. Hearing the news of her husband's death, regret, sadness, and fear would have taken over her mind.  In the end all this makes her stronger, it makes her more independent, she even says to herself that she is no longer afraid. Although it took years, she now knows who she is, and what she is capable of doing and overcoming.
This just goes to show that those moments, or those chapters in your life that seem like they were accidents, as if they were just a string of unforseen and unexpected incidents, whether they were to be celebrated or want to be forgotten are what put you where you are supposed to be.

Questions

 

What do you think the purpose of having such a high focus on romantic and intimate relationships was in this novel?

The second generation of Bengali's are often criticized for being ungrateful for their family and disrespectful of their culture. Which perspective do you sympathize with most; that of the children or that of the parents?  Why?


What do you think this novel says about ageing, the passing of time and the changes that come hand in hand with the two?