The Namesake: Ashoke

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is a novel about a husband and wife who have just recently moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1968. At the start of the novel Ashima is going into labor with her husband, Ashokes child. In the first chapter we learn bits and pieces from Ashima and Ashokes past. A few years later Ashoke had been in a train accident where he almost died. A few hours before the accident, Ashoke met a man named Ghosh, who he had shared a compartment with on the train. Ghosh said to Ashoke "Do yourself a favor, before it's to late, without thinking to much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it. One day it will be too late" (Jhumpa 16).  After this the train crashes and Ashoke has a near death incident. You would think after this he would do what ever he could to see as much of the world. But he does the exact opposite. There is something holding him back from taking Ghoshs advice. I hope to find out more about Ashoke in the following chapters and finding out the reason he does the exact opposite of what Ghoshs says to do.