Volition

Life of Pi

“That's what fiction is about, isn’t it, selective transforming of reality. The twisting of it to bring out its essence.” -Yann Martel

When I first read the title 'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel, I thought ‘e’ in ‘pi’ must be missing and that it would be sweet pie story, but thankfully that's not the case. Pi here is 3.14 or Pi Patel or Piscine Molitor Patel the protagonist of the Man Booker Prize (2002) winning story. Pi lived in Pondicherry, India where his father was a zookeeper with his mother and brother Ravi. Pi was a great student and developed a profound love for god. The sixteen yr old boy was so devoted to loving the divine transcendental soul that he was a practicing Hindu, Muslim and Christian all at the same time. Vishnu, Jesus and Allah were all close to his heart. He would not have cared for anything unless it would inflict his poised life at Pondicherry with his Zoo, family and Gods in place.

The indifferent conduct of the Gandhi regime along with the erratic nature of zookeeping business led the family to decide trading all the zoo animals and moving to Canada for what they thought would be a insouciant life, only if there was to be one.
His father, mother and Ravi died in the shipwreck on their way to Canada leaving Pi as castaway and also Richard Parker, the 450 pound Royal Bengal Tiger. This is what the story is about, 227 days on the barbarous Pacific Ocean with a barbarous tiger on a life boat and nothing to go on with except hope. The tiger on board was dreadful, but being alone on Pacific was formidable. Richard Parker was the sensory cells to his eyes, he was a source of hope and inspiration, without this ferocious animal survival would be inconceivable, for there were deadly storms, bone-chilling cold, perilous sharks and no food or water supply, agony, pain, hopelessness, distress and no one to count on other than god.

Sometime after the interminable suffering on the pacific, Pi finds a carnivorous island with enough algae, fresh water and if variety needed, fishes and meerkats to last more than a few lifetimes. After being so close to death, they found it to be nirvana and slowly but surely came back to life. But abundance of amenities is not just what someone seeks, spirit of being alive does not come with meerkats, dorados or fresh water ponds.

“How many forlorn hours in the aboreal city with only meerkats for company? How many dreams of happy life dashed? How much hope come to nothing? How much conversation that died unsaid? How much loneliness endured? How much hopelessness taken on?”

 “How long it takes for a broken spirit to kill a body that has food, water and shelter.” 

After all those endurance and deprivation, Pi decided to take on the odyssey further, to where he could be with his own kinds, dream of happy life and cease the perpetual afflictions that hope confers.

“High call low and low calls high. I tell you, if you were in such dire straits as I was, you too would elevate your thoughts. The lower you are the higher your mind will want to soar.”

Pi finds land, Mexico to be precise and makes a life for himself that is composed and exulting. A very compelling story with uplifting thoughts prosed powerfully. For a person who lost everything and endured austere agony, its a story that would make you believe in god.