Skip to main content

Life of Pi

 

Do you believe in stories? Did you believe in stories when you were young? This book named Life of Pi (2001) written by Yann Martel made me want to believe in stories again.

Margaret Atwood’s comment on the book cover itself “A terrific book” made me stop for a moment as I flipped through the pages curiously to find out what the book was about. 


 

It is a story of a young boy named Piscine Molitor Patel, first introduced to his classmates as Pissing Patel and later known as Pi Patel (π = the Greek letter Pi) after his desperate effort to change his first name from Pissing to Pi which in his ears sounds less-awkward. His father owns a zoo and the boy’s sole motive in life is to love God. Even though he is born to a Hindu family in India, after several encounters with a Catholic priest and an Islamic baker in the town, he becomes a Christian who goes to church on Sundays and a Muslim who prays at the mosque on Fridays and a devoted Hindu on a regular basis. As a zoo owner’s son, Pi is interested in all kinds of animals and he knows a great deal about Gods and animals. 

The sixteen-year old Pi is one day being told by his parents that they have planned to move to Canada. All the animals of the Pondicherry zoo have been shipped to the other zoos and the family’s trip to Canada is by a cargo ship named 'Tsimtsum'. After the tragic sinking of the ship, only Pi is left alive on a life boat in the far away Pacific with a hyena, zebra, a female orang-utan and Richard Parker; the Bengal tiger to keep him company. The book is indeed terrific as Margaret Atwood has rightly said, not only because of the young boy’s desperate struggle in the Pacific Ocean but also due to the tragic end of his lonely voyage. The tragedy of it is that even though he manages to rescue himself and Richard Parker almost after seven months, no one seems to believe his ‘real story’ of managing to share a lifeboat with a tiger for seven months. 


 

The writer says in the author’s note, “If we, citizens, do not support out artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams”. Therefore, Life of Pi is a book filled with adventure, terror, humour, love and faith which makes the readers believe in stories. It was interesting for me to find out that the book has also been adapted into a film in 2012 directed by Ang Lee.

 

~Parami Ranasinghe

Comments

  1. sevenamusedbloggersApril 26, 2021 at 3:47 AM

    I thought 'Life of Pi' was originally a film. And your article made me want to read this novel. The story reminds me of the 2015 movie 'In the Heart of the Sea' which is a brilliant brilliant movie with a moving and an adventurous plotline starring Chris Hemsworth. I have a feeling that 'Life of Pi' story would be less gruesome. Even though I have never read the book or watched the movie, I feel like the author has tried to tell a story of love, harmony and human values.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NipuniApril 27, 2021 at 4:13 AM

    I watched the film and honestly at the end of it... i thought that he had made the whole story up to repress the reality of the traumatic events at sea and his own actions. In the movie, the final scene when the reporter asks Pi if the story was real he gives this ''look''... and I remember how it sent a horrific chill up my spine! To date I'm not sure what to believe but it's an action packed film that keeps you on edge. Irfan Khan and Suraj Sharma's acting is the cherry on top!

    -Nipuni

    ReplyDelete
  3. TherushieMay 2, 2021 at 9:46 AM

    I did not know that Ang Lee's movie was based on a book! To be honest, eventhough I LOVED the first half of the movie, I got a bit bored after the ship sank and have never seen the end of it.... So I can't really say much about it- perhaps the book is better than the film!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing Mukbang!

The internet is the birthplace of many bizarre challenges and trends. For the past decade, people went crazy over various absurd trends like ‘Naked Butts In Front Of Pretty Scenery’ photography, people showing off their colored armpits and glittery beards, the ghoulish Kylie Jenner lip challenge and the freezing ice bucket challenge. These trends I’ve mentioned are equivalent to just a drop of water in a sea of hundreds of trends which went viral in the internet. Introducing Mukbang! Yet another seemingly unrealistic trend brought to life by The Internet. And has now become a full-blown viral sensation. What is Mukbang ? 👀 The word Mukbang is a blend of two Korean words: “mukja,” or “let’s eat”; and “bang song,” meaning "broadcast”. It is an internet trend that originated from South Korea where it spread amongst the masses. In this, hosts record themselves eating massive, calorie-rich   spreads, large enough to feed a family in one sitting. However the interesting thing abou...
5 comments
Read more

The Queen who Challenged the Symbolic Order of Ancient Egypt

Limestone statue of Hatshepsut as Pharaoh The Nile flows even today through the plains of Africa as she did thousands of years ago through the valley of the kings where a great woman once challenged the patrilineal throne. She is known as the first great woman in history of whom we are informed, a great Pharaoh who ruled Egypt during a time of great prosperity whose legacy could not be erased despite the attempts taken by one of her successors to eradicate her from history. Hatshepsut, meaning "the foremost of the noble women", was born into the 18th  Dynasty of ancient Egypt’s new kingdom. She was the daughter of the great Thutmose the first and his primary wife Ahmose. Being of legitimate birth, had she not been a woman, she would have been next in line to the throne. However, after her father's death, young Hatshepsut was married to Thutmose the second, her half brother, in order to legitimate the throne and preserve the purity of the royal blood line. Thutmose the s...
6 comments
Read more

My entry into Manga, Anime and CGI, an awesome digital reality!

The farthest that I can travel back into   my past to find the roots of where it all started is when I was in the first grade during the period I’d been abroad, when I’d been totally addicted to cartoons, being the only child then with nothing much to do.   I guess I’d always been drawn to cartoons because of how much I love to draw, read and write. The first shows I’d ever watched were DICE, Pluster World, Tsubasa Chronicles, Virtua Fighter, YuGiOh!, Martin Mystery, Totally Spies, Code-Lyoko, Galactic Football, Scobby-Doo, Tom and Jerry, and   Ben 10.   I remember being enthralled watching these and I believe I’m not ashamed   to say that I’d learnt a few things from these shows, and growing up, they were an influence on my worldview, self-perception, my sense of humour and attitudes. Only when I’d began using a computer and the Internet around third grade that I found out that some these were not cartoons, but anime. For most, the difference seems negligible...
4 comments
Read more