The Namesake Post A # 7

Now that Gogol has broken up with Maxine, his mother is pressuring him into finding someone else. She is just looking out for him, and he seems annoyed at first, but after a few days, he agrees to call an old childhood "friend" (they never really talked when they were children) Moushumi Mazoomdar. They meet at a coffee shop in a "blind date." She starts out saying how his name is now Nikhil, as opposed to Gogol. He tells her yes. "It had annoyed him, when he'd called her, that she hadn't recognized him as Nikhil. This is the first time he's been out with a woman who'd once known him by that other name" (193). He then explains to her why he changed his name. Moushumi then reminds him how when they were young, her parents told her to call him Gogol Dada. In Indian families, it is not uncommon for one kid to call another dada, or didi, if it is a girl. In American culture that sounds ridiculous, and I can attest to that. Some of my relatives were "supposed" to call me Daniel Dada and Priya, Priya Didi. They laughed about it and maybe used it about two times before deciding it was silly. Probably the closest thing we have to that in American culture is "bro" or "sis," but I'm pretty sure no one calls a girl "sis," and bro is never used in a truly serious manner.