[Warning: Spoilers!]
People who feel that The Namesake was too unrealistic might have to reconsider now that the “real” Gogol has emerged [via UB]. Vishaan Chakrabarti is a New York City architect. His father was a Professor (at Harvard, the book was set in Boston unlike the movie) and his mother a librarian who became a classical Indian singer. And yes, he had a nickname that he disliked enough that he legally changed his name while in college.
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The Namesake’s Namesake? |
Chakrabarti … has good reason to believe he’s the inspiration for Gogol, the protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel (Kal Penn’s role in the movie). “Maybe it’s just coincidence that nine-tenths of the book is the same as my life,” he says, “but it was my friends who pointed it out. Anyone who knew me well saw the similarity immediately.” [Link]
[NOTE: Chakrabarti wasn’t trying to grab the headlines, a friend of his told NYMag, which then contacted him to inquire further.]
He met Jhumpa because, in real life, she was the proto-Moushumi figure:
He dates non-Indian women, to his parents’ chagrin, and, after his father’s death, shaves his head and lets his mother set him up for the first time with an Indian girl—which is how Chakrabarti met Lahiri. [Link]
However, as Chakrabarti himself points out, there was no grand drama between them, just a set-up that went nowhere:
Chakrabarti … does note many differences between himself and Gogol. Most important, he and Lahiri dated only briefly, not getting hitched and divorced, as in the book. Chakrabarti, who’s now married, says they simply never hit it off. [Link]
In fact, neither of them married Bengalis. I guess just being Bengali wasn’t enough 
.
I wasn’t surprised to find out that there was a proto-Gogol running around. As much as writers like to claim that their characters spring from their head fully formed, generated by nothing more than their muse and the empty void, we all know it’s not true. Consider Seinfeld for example. Jerry is Jerry. As bizarre as Costanza’s adventures were, many of them were tamer versions of things that had happened to the show’s co-writer, Larry David.
As Alexander explains in an interview for the Seinfeld DVD, during an early conversation with David, Alexander questioned a script, saying, “This could never happen to anyone, and even if it did, no human being would react like this.” David replied, “What do you mean? This happened to me once, and this is exactly how I reacted!”… [Link]
Kramer is based on David’s real life whacky neighbor Kenny Kramer, and Elaine was a blend of Seinfeld and David’s girlfriends. Even a show about nothing was based on real people in real life situations.
However, most of the time, the inspiration for characters get no recognition from the authors, especially if the show is a success. The play and movie versions of Six Degrees of Separation were based on the real life exploits of conman David Hampton. Hampton was chagrined to find out that he wasn’t even invited to the party for the play!
Although the link between Chakrabarti and Gogol is weaker, it’s interesting to see the reception he received from Ms. Lahiri:
He’s talked to Lahiri once since the book came out, at a book signing. “I thought she might say something,” he said. “It’s interesting, but she didn’t acknowledge it. Even the way she signed it was like, ‘Nice to see you.’”… [Link]
More than anything else, that makes me think that maybe Chakrabarti really was the model for Gogol ….
This leaves two interesting dangling questions:
- If Jhumpa was the proto-Moushumi figure, then does that shed any light on Moushumi? What exactly was going on, either in her mind or her life, at that time?
- What was Chakrabarti’s nickname? If you consider the fact that his father was on the faculty of Harvard Med School, does this mean that he was named after his father’s favorite … species of research subject? Disease? The mind boggles on this one.
[Yes, I know that Gogol is probably a composite of various real people with a healthy dose of the author’s imagination. Still, it’s plausible that Chakrabarti was at least the basis for a rough sketch of the character, or that his parents may have provided some of the inspiration for Gogol’s parents … ]
