In Chapter 2 of The Namesake, Ashima finally gives birth to a baby boy. The story goes on to explain the tradition of how Bengali babies are named, which is by the eldest in family--in this case, Ashima's grandmother. Yet, Bengali people also have "pet names"along with their "good names." The baby boy is named "Gogol," a pet name representing the lives that were born and reborn (Gogol & Ashoke), for that was the author Ashoke was last reading before the train accident.
When the concept of pet names was being explained, the line, "They are a reminder, too, that one is not all things to all people," held my attention. I wondered to myself, "What does the author mean by 'all things'?" Is it that a person has to have some secretiveness to them that others aren't allowed to see except for the family? Maybe a pet name is supposed to represent possessiveness for a family, a way for them to stay and be knit together is an isolated way. They all have their own pet names, and in a way, those names become their identities. The pet names remind Bengali people who they are and where they come from.
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