Life of Pi
Life of Pi is a Man Booker prize winning novel written by Yann Martel.
Martel visited India to write a novel which happens in another country. But
when he heard a true story of a sixteen year old boy from a person he met
during his stay in India, his whole plan changed.
I came to know of this novel when the Tamil writer S.Ramakrishnan
recommended this in his website. I happened to see this novel in a sale in our
school conducted for fund raising. The book was written in 2002 I think, but by
the appearance it looked as if it was printed seventy five years ago. Nearly a
hundred pages had come off the binding, and the remaining pages were also on
the verge separating themselves from their parent if we made an attempt to
read. But the thing that caught my attention was its price, five ruffia,
fifteen rupees in Indian currency. So I bought it after making sure all the
pages are present inside the book and started reading it immediately.
The hero of the novel is a sixteen year old boy named Piscine Patel, the
son of a Zoo director in Pondicherry, India. Since the students of his school
made a mockery of his name, calling him ‘pissing Patel’ he decided to change
his name. When he visits a new school he introduced himself as Pi. The name was
catchy and was quickly popularized. Pi was interested in all three major
religions in India, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam and tries to follow all
the religions simultaneously. Representatives of three religions meet the boy’s
father in the hope of trying to attract Pi towards their religion. But Pi liked
all the religions and wants to worship Rama, Jesus and Allah equally.
Being the son of a Zoo director gives him the opportunity of living with
the animals. He knows in and out about the behaviour of wild animals. In fact,
his involvement in the religious activities and his wide knowledge of the wild
animals led him to choose to study theology and Zoology at his graduation
level.
The story happens in 1970s I suppose. It was the time when Mrs Indira
Gandhi, the prime minister of India, enforced emergency throughout the country.
Pi’s father foresees the danger running zoo business and decided to migrate to
Canada. He sells the Zoo but not the animals. Since it is a good bargain to
sell the animals in America, Pi’s family, along with the animals travel in a
cargo ship to Canada.
On its course the ship meets with an accident and sinks. The boy was
thrown on to a lifeboat and onto the sea. He survived the accident along with a
zebra with a broken leg, an orangutan, a hyena and 450 pound royal Bengal
tiger.
Though it was almost certain that all the creatures on the lifeboat
would die killing each other or try to save them from being killed by one
another or of natural causes, the novel describes the miraculous escape of the
boy from the dangerous animals and also from the cruelties of the sea.
The continuing pages tell us the compelling incidences that involve the
boy attempting to survive through the ordeals. He tries everything that is
possible to prolong his life until a savior of some sort sights him. He
utilizes all the materials that were available in the lifeboat and the
persisting situations around him to his benefit and cheats death.
It is hard to believe that for the major part of the novel, Pi was the
only human character and yet the pace and interest of the novel did not go
down; in fact they go up once Pi ends up on a life boat. Yann Martel’s style of
writing is simple, lucid and humorous even in the most catastrophic situations.
The story of Pi is a prime example of why we should believe in God. It
proves even when you are thrust into a calamity; miracles are bound to happen
if you have faith in God and life. Life presents itself with simple solutions
for major adversities when you have willingness to survive. Life of Pi is not
only a story, but a lesson to all of us who lose hope and interest in life even
when we live comfortably.
To be continued.
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