Post B # 3

Gogol is now in tenth grade, and is ashamed of his name. He is alienating himself more and more from his true heritage, and it is showing noticably. The first girl he kisses, he says, is kissed by Nikhil, not Gogol. "He shakes his head [...] as astonished as they are [...] 'It wasn't me,' he nearly says. But he doesn't tell them that it hadn't been Gogol who'd kissed Kim. That Gogol had had nothing to do with it (98)." He remarks earlier how he could never see himself saying "Hi, it's Gogol," over the phone to a girl he was dating. In fact, he decides to go and legally change his name in a court of law. When he is asked why he wants to change it, he replies, "Personal reasons," to which the judge answers, "Would you care to be more specific?"
After his name is changed, he remarks how he feels more confident, and feels he can approach more people. He also remarks how he feels a wave of embarassment whenever he is still called Gogol, as he still is by his parents, highschool friends, and relatives.
When he goes off to college, it is like a fresh start for him. Nobody at Yale knows who he is, and he is free to tell them whatever he wants. Of course there is peril in him telling them anything that is short of the truth, but college is the first place he has been able to fit in. I know that this is not the best example, but the girl he loses his virginity to, he introduces himself as "Nikhil."