We all came out of Gogol’s overcoat!

Namesake (2006)

We all wear coats to hide what we wear inside. Sometimes we are ashamed of what we have underneath and need to cover it all. At other times, it is chilly outside. Occasionally, what we have beneath it is inappropriate. Shame, political incorrectness or social awkwardness are all put aside; the real person under it all is the real us.

The act of being someone else that we are not may come back to bite us. Additionally, wearing blinkers and staying adamant about what we have without being receptive to positive external input is self-defeating.

Life is a learning experience. We are all eternal students picking up wisdom as we go. Our final destination is one that amalgamates all the wealth, baggage and tradition that we carry inside. In short, we are what we are but should not forget where we came from, but at the same time, learn to adapt and adopt our new environment.

We have often heard of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, the famous Russian writer and his work surrounding human psychology and religion, mentioned in many classic movies. In this movie, the character is heard stating one of Dostoyevsky's famous sayings, 'We all came out of Gogol's overcoat'. Even though he meant that Nikholai Gogol had influenced later Russian writers, this phrase can be interpreted at different levels.

In Gogol's short story 'Overcoat', the protagonist, Akaky, a poor worker who is often teased by his co-workers for wearing a patched-up old coat. Embarrassed by this, Akaky saves up to buy a new overcoat. His co-workers rejoice by celebrating his purchase. Unfortunately, Akaky's joy is shortlived. He is mugged off his coat on his way back home in a poor neighbourhood.

That is the dilemma that most of us face in our daily lives. We are damned if we do and damned if we do not like Akaky, who is heckled for an old coat but robbed of an expensive one. In the same way, we do the best for our offspring giving the best that we can offer but expect to be as street-smart as the person who had survived the hard knocks of life. We pad their every fall but still expect them to be robust. We think the third world is not good enough for them to prosper but still expect them to have our ancestral values when they grow up immersed in their newfound motherland's cultures. The best they can do is to embrace the best of both worlds; the ancestral and sojourning homes.

Through the saga of an Indian professor who made the USA his home and his Indian wife plus their American-born children and Gogol's book, the screenwriters try to narrate the dilemma of NRIs. They are not quite American because of their names but yet feel alienated in India. They also cannot fit into what is perceived as Indian culture as is expected of them in the Indian community of the USA.

Sociologists have researched these children, whom they refer to as 'third-culture kids'. They discovered that after getting caught in cultures, though challenging, they become independent and confident and often benefit from their multicultural background.

An exciting presentation starring Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Kal Penn that makes you think. It will want you to find out more about Gogol and Russian literature.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.