Back to Reading ways… ; )

Firstly, don’t be puzzled with the title of the post. The reading here has nothing related to studies or exams or anything that a typical Subcontinent dude can think as ‘Sensible’… The reading here describes the pure passion of admiring the authors skills in terms of innovation, narration, description, style, imagination etc. I was so admired by many people here in Singapore who gives good preference to reading especially in trains… I thought why not….

I started off reading few books like world is flat, the earth is my butt, the 2 states and now the most recent one was the Namesake by Jumpa lahiri.. This particular book Namesake is too good in its own merit. Firstly, the author an American-indian even though sticks to American vocabulary, used a lovely narration that makes a reader to feel the protagonist’s pain all over. Another highlight is that this is the only time I have studied a book and watched the movie made of the same book entirely. I must confess, the stupid thing I have done by watching the movie and I guess any book reader will agree that a movie can never match the book when it comes to same story. The obvious reason being the imagination of the reader is more vivid than a movie watcher. When you read you can imagine the characters, places, events as the power and versality of your imagination takes. However, when you watch, the imagination is all limited to the visuals you got infront and that makes you dumb at times….

The Namesake is the story of an Indian family migrated to USA and the transition between these 2 worlds starting from 1980s through the eyes of weirdly named boy called Gogol. The typical Indian parents, the American culture the son grows in, the weird name, life-of-uncertainty every thing grips up the story and gives enough fuel to the author to entertain the readers and make them immersed in emotions. I also felt its important and suggest this to any first generation immigrant parents to any country outside india. Probably, this book gives the insight of what the kids may feel when they grown with a Indian family in a non-indian surrounding.

As the movie is concerned, it’s a big let down and no wonder it’s a flop inspite of having the all classic star cast in the movie. I understand you can not fill everything in 1.5 hours time but may be as I read the book, felt the movie is super fast and skipped important events covered in the book.

As a whole, The Namesake is must to read and better not to watch.