How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Part of him know this is a privilege, to be here with a person who knows the city so well, but the other part of him wants simply to be a tourist, fumbling with a phrase book, looking at all the buildings on his list, getting lost. (9.26)
The difference between Moushumi's and Gogol's attitudes toward Paris doesn't bode well for their relationship. Moushumi feels at home in Paris, which is neither India nor America; Gogol wants to be a tourist and see everything with new, fresh eyes.
Quote #8
All of it he finds beautiful beyond description, and yet at the same time it depresses him that none of it is new to Moushumi, that she has seen it all hundreds of times […] He admires her, even resents her a little, for having moved to another country and made a separate life. He realizes that this is what their parents had done in America. What he, in all likelihood, will never do. (9.28)
Moving to another country is a chance to remake yourself. Only it's hard to do that when your wife has already lived in Paris, and formed a Parisian identity. Gogol has to confront the fact that the Moushumi who lived in Paris is very different from the Moushumi he knows.