Friday, August 03, 2007

The Namesake

This post is slightly on the serious side. Last nite I watched ‘The Namesake’ (yeah finally!) and must say I loved the movie, not because of the stellar performances by all the actors, but because how close that movie is to my own life. Don’t worry unlike posts seen in many other blogs, I am not gonna write a review of the movie.


Watching the movie I felt that the lead characters Ashoke and Ashima were a reflection my dad and mum. Dad like Ashoke wanted us to stay outside Kerala cause a metro city was the ‘land of opportunities’(for further reference please refer to the post ‘Leema I got transferred’) and mum like Ashima still has the distinct accented English. What is strikingly similar is the relationship they both share, the downplayed romance, the concern over their ‘slightly’ indifferent children. I was reminded of my folks in the scene where Ashoke explains to Ashima that just because other husbands don’t build the Taj for their wives they don’t love them any less, where Ashoke calls Ashima to be with him in Cleaveland and when Ashima asks her husband ‘u want me to say I love u like the americans’ and the way she does not say it.


Similarities don’t end there. There are shades of Gogol in me coz I too have issues with my name. I always complain to my folks that in an effort to match my name with my sister’s, they have given me a lousy name. Why did they have to give me 3 names, y give me a name does not mean anything, y put my ‘good’ name, pet name and dad’s name in the school register, the names are three small names which they sounds ridiculous when taken together, y cant I make my dad’s name an initial and take my granddad’s name and…on and on and on. But in the scenes where his father says that Gogol can change his name and when it hurts him when Gogol’s wife says that she intends to retain her maiden name, I realized how much I hurt my folks wid my ‘name changing’ tantrums.


Sorry dad and mum coz I hurt you with alternatives for my name..after all whats in a name.. a rose by any other name would smell as sweet and there is no more room for granddad’s name in my name- Dad this is for your 'namesake'....

15 comments:

Zennmaster said...

Ann Minu Jose... the best post in recent times... =)

Hemant said...

Now this post is of a different genre as compared to your usual ones.
Luved the reflective element!

Rainman said...

I didn't even know there was a movie called The Namesake.

anN-series said...

@ zen master
Thanx..u r a constatnt source of motivation! :~D

@hemant
occassionally i think

@brat
r u sure u live in the US..its was released there too...

stuti said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
stuti said...

di..... the post is awesome !!! just like the movie is =)

its the third best after " being balbir singh" and "annie mc beal ":)

bhelll done !!!! :P

2:55 AM

maneesh said...

yea .. ppl don use a name anyway.. kallu.. blackcurrent.. kaleshnandan :p all for the sake of a name.. :)

and ann is a much better name than gogol..wats wrong wit ya :P *peace*

promoteyourblogforfree said...

nice blog

Mark IV said...

hmmm... ann- 3 letters.. but redundant 'n'. make it AN
minu- u ve never really used it... get it off too

jose? josh? make it J- cooler, like james bond...

so now u can go 'my name is an J' which is wrong grammar... so u gotta go 'my name is a J'
hi AJ (sheeks! that sounds like the one person i hate!)

mathew said...

that was an awesome post..and quite honest too...and I loved the movie coz there are streaks of us in the characters..

anjan said...

I enjoyed reading your blog!! You write really well. When were u in bbay??? U working there??? We must meet up!

Macadamia The Nut said...

That was so SWEET!
i could really identify with your post.

Unknown said...

What a load of crap!!!

Unknown said...

hi miss namesake,
everything has a purpose and a meaning...as far as my knowledge and research extends the word ann has always been used as one of a favourite female gender name....which in classic english times was used to describe the grace shown towards the ruler by offering the ruler a part of the first harvest....plus it also has its origin in french and hebrew languages also....something interesting for you to look into!

anN-series said...

@ stuti
thank u so much babe.

@maneesh
i like ann, but i used 2 find my full name funny

@promoteurblogforfree
thanx

@ mark iv
who is AJ??

@anjan
thanx anjan...loong time..i used to work in bbay..now in the lundun

@macadamia
thank u..guess this is quite a common thought now

@aravind
i shall rightly flush it away

@aey
hey i know the meaning of ann and i like the name a lot. jus that my name causes problems in india with ppl being unaware of it.