On Friday Bartek and I went to see “The Namesake” directed by Mira Nair (she also directed Monsoon Wedding). It is a beautiful, touching movie about cultural assimilation of a family of Bengali immigrants in America. It asks questions which most of immigrants to America must have asked themselves many times during the course of their lives, like: How much of your own culture/tradition you are willing to give away in order to fit in? Is the process of assimilation unidirectional, or can you come back to your culture if you want to? Can you be happy having one of your feet in America and the other in your country of origin? If you have kids born and raised in the US, can you expected them to live according to the rules of your “old” culture?
Go and see this movie. It will touch your heart and make you think.