Life of Pi

I always wanted to read this book but somehow never got my hands on it. But finally i am at it.. This Story of this castaway is giving me good company in the countdown to my return home. Yann Martel has done a marvelous job and certainly deserved the Booker.. the setting is unique. A boy and a tiger are the only survivors on a life boat.

Somewhere in the book you will come across the line "i have a story that will make you believe in GOD" and the story of Pi would start. Pi starts as a believer in Hinduism, Christianity and Islam.. Right now i am in the middle of the book and he says he still prays.. i cant wait to find out how he kept on believing in GOD for the 7months that he was in his apparently hopeless situation. Or does he lose faith and start believing again when he is rescued...

Another thing that makes this makes this book great is the description of the psychological battle that he has to fight with the tiger. I cant stop drawing parallels into human world as i read those descriptions. It is not only animals who jealously guard their territories, your boss, your colleagues, your parents, your spouse ... all of them do. I am sure each one of us engages in these little skirmishes once in a while. Some basics that Pi spells out can be so much true. but i doubt if we ever consciously use them. It's not just Pavlov's dog, we all fall for it..

Well that's it for now.. will complete this post when i m through with the book

edit 1:monday march 31st 2008
Finished the book a couple of days ago. Didn't really leave me with good mood. In the end Pi finally reaches civilization, the tiger dashes of into the jungle and he is saved by generous natives. But people find his story of living with a tiger on a lifeboat for 7months unbelievable and he gives them an alternate story. Well i never doubted that he did live with richard parker (the tiger) on the boat and really hated the alternate story.

Anyway i found no answer to how he managed to keep his faith in GOD. To me he survived because he could not stop taking the challenges that his daily life confronted with. But may be thats because he was successful, i mean he could overcome them. I wonder how long he would have gone if he could not have trained the tiger.

A simpler and a more acceptable answer came to me the next day.. It must have been 2 in the morning when i finished this book. The next day was a saturday and i woke up leisurely, and as i turned on my tv, the movie Castaway was just starting.. I had seen it earlier but i let it run. It must be 10 mins before the end of the movie, and Tom hanks is speaking his mind out infront of his friend. He is amazed at the irony of the situation, he lived on all those 4 years because of Kelly and when he is back he finds that he has lost kelly. He says

...thats when this feeling came over me like a warm blanket, i knew somehow i had to stay alive , somehow i had to keep breathing, even though there was no hope, and all my logic said that i could never see this place again. So thats what i did. I stayed alive, i kept breathing, and one day that logic would prove all wrong because a tide came in and gave me a sail. And here i am , i m back, in memphis talking to you. i have ice in my glass, and i have lost her all over again.i m so sad that i dont have kelly, but i am so greatful that she was with me on that island. And i know what i have to do now. i have to keep breathing, because tomorrow the sun will rise. who knows what the tide could bring..

You can see this scene here on you tube some 3 and half minutes into the clip. A strange co-incidence i would say, for me to be watching Castaway the day after i finished this book. But at the end this is what was running on my mind.... If hope equals to GOD then i have my answer... Because that's what kept Pi alive. And whatever name we give to that thing within us that lets us hope in the face of despair is...GOD.

Quite a serious thought for an otherwise frivolous blog.. but that's todays pandafunda because thats what on my mind today..