Side 3 , Side 2 : The Beatles in Jhumpa Lahiri ’ s The Namesake
is the rave-up “ Birthday .” Readers hitherto unaware that this is the first tune on side 3 will perhaps experience the shock of recognition that Lahiri ’ s allusiveness is designed to cause ; and as the side ’ s cuts succeed each other , this shock does not let up . Listening to “ Birthday ” on his birthday , a sensitive 14-year-old Beatles fan would feel as if he were receiving a personal greeting from John , Paul , George , and Ringo . The songs that follow would touch something deeper�in today ’ s parlance , they would “ trigger ” complex feelings .
The noisy guitars and crashing drums of “ Yer Blues ” swing the mood from joy to suicidal despair . John Lennon , the song ’ s composer , howls , “ Yes I ’ m lonely / Want to die / Yes I ’ m lonely / Want to die / If I ain ’ t dead already / Girl you know the reason why .” Despite being surrounded by friends , wife Cynthia , and the other Beatles , Lennon was unhappy in Rishikesh . He admitted later on that he was “[ u ] p there trying to reach God and feeling suicidal ” ( Beatles Anthology 283 ). Unlike the song “ Help !,” which camouflaged Lennon ’ s misery in 1965 , “ Yer Blues ” lays it out in blunt imagery (“ Feel so suicidal / Even hate my rock and roll ”), the four Beatles , crammed into a small room in Abbey Road Studio , whaling away at their instruments in living fury , replicating on guitars and drums the singer ’ s anguish . Young Gogol likely hears in Lennon ’ s pain the isolation that is an integral part of his own life . Fourteen years earlier he had arrived in Mount Auburn Hospital “[ w ] ithout a single grandparent or parent or uncle or aunt at [ his mother Ashoke ’ s ] side ” ( 24 ). “ As [ Ashoke ] strokes and suckles and studies her son ,” the narrator states , “ she can ’ t help but pity him . She has never known of a person entering the world so alone , so deprived ” ( 24 – 25 ).
Just as quickly , the mood swings back to serenity . “ Mother Nature ’ s Son ,” McCartney ’ s homage to Rishikesh ’ s pastoral calm , foreshadows the vacations the 26-year-old Gogol will
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