LIFE OF PI !!!

The French used to live in Pondicherry, a small and beautiful place of India. The coastal areas of Pondicherry used to look like France only. Just beyond a canal, the Pondicherry looked like Indian Pondicherry. Muslims used to live in the western part of Pondicherry. Was your dad, a great mathematician? Mamaji was his swimming Guru. Piscine Molitor was a famous swimming pool of Paris City in France where the pool water was so clear that you could even prepare a cup of coffee with that water. Mamaji enjoyed swimming in that pool and recommended about that swimming pool to one of his best friends. If you want your son to have a clean soul, then you must take your son to swim in Piscine Molitor. 

Piscine Molitor Patel used to get humiliated in the school due to his name. On the first day of every new session in any school, every student gets a chance to introduce himself to the teachers of their respective subjects. The value of PI is 3.14. Is it a Greek alphabet? How many places of decimals did he wrote on that blackboard? By the end of the day, the little boy succeeded in confirming his name as PI Patel. The Canadian writer was in search of a story and Mamaji recommended about PI. The French gave back their French Colony of Pondicherry to India in 1954. A businessman of Pondicherry who used to run a hotel decided to convert Jardin Botanique, a French local botanical garden into a small zoo. The botanist married the businessman and gave birth to Ravi, the elder brother of Piscine.

There are 33 million Gods in the Hindu religion. After hearing the heroic acts of Lord Krishna, the little child started regarding Lord Krishna as a Superhero while reading the mythological comic books. Piscine started regarding the Hindu Gods as Superheroes. Lord Hanuman lifted an entire mountain to save the life of Lakshman, the younger brother of Lord Rama. Lord Ganesh risked his life to save the honour of his mother, Goddess Parvati. Lord Vishnu was the supreme soul, the source of all things. The little boy was little confused about the ideals of Christianity. Sacrificing the lives of innocent people for the sins of guilty people has no real sense at all. If God is so perfect, then why the almighty God created human beings? Human beings just need to know one thing; that God loves each and every creature of this planet Earth! I came to faith through Hinduism and got God’s love from Christ but God wasn’t finished with me yet. God works in mysterious ways. So, God introduced himself to me again and this time in the form of Allah. Santosh Patel told Piscine to explore more about science rather than religion, but, Piscine never stopped exploring different religions. Why not! Because FAITH is a house with many rooms where doubts exist in every floor of that house! Doubt is very useful as it keeps FAITH as a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is being tested.

Due to some wrong paper works, the name of the Royal Bengal Tiger became Richard Parker. The little boy was scolded for trying to feed a tiger of the zoo. The Royal Bengal Tiger was surprised to see a little boy who was trying to feed a tiger. Santosh Patel came at the right time to save his 2^nd son. Gita Patel requested her husband to forgive Piscine. Piscine fell in love with Anandi. Lotus flower is hiding in the forest! Why would a Lotus flower hide in a forest? Santosh Patel decided to leave India and settle down at Canada due to some financial constraints and even planned to sell the animals in foreign countries. We will sail like Christopher Columbus. But Christopher Columbus was looking for India only. The Lotus flower remained in the forest itself. Piscine even forgot to bid goodbye to Anandi. 

The Patel family along with the zoo animals started their journey towards Canada in a Japanese cargo ship. The cook of the ship was not in a mood to serve vegetarian foods whereas the Patel family members were vegetarian except Santosh Patel. Orange juice tranquilizers were installed inside the bananas to feed the monkeys to prevent them from sea-sickness. After 4 days journey from the Port of Manila, the city of Philippines, the Japanese cargo ship was awaiting a big danger at Mariana Trench, the deepest point of the Oceans of the world near the Philippines basin. The deepness of Mariana Trench is greater than the altitude of Mount Everest. The deadly sea storm forced the Japanese cargo ship to collide with a big rocky island near Mariana Trench. Even the sea waves were so deadly, that all the sea waters entered inside the ship. Piscine also did a blunder by opening the door of the cabin during the sea storm. PI was thrown in a life boat along with a zebra. Richard Parker followed that life boat. Hang on! The hyena was also on that boat. The monkey also boarded the PI’s Ark. The hyena was hungry and it killed both zebra and monkey on that boat. PI was too furious and was about to attack the hyena with his knife that the Royal Bengal Tiger came to the party. Richard killed the hyena and PI left the boat to float on a red coloured tyre. The life boat had around 90 cans of drinking waters, a guidebook and several packets of biscuits. PI transferred all those supplies to his little vessel. 

PI read the guidebook, but, he realized very quickly that the practical life does not always abide by the rules of several theories. Above all, don’t lose hope! That’s the only consolation; the guidebook offered him. Step 4: Disregard Step 1, 2, 3. A Royal Bengal Tiger’s hunger is always a deadly one. The vegetarian boy started hunting fishes. Unlike all other species of tigers in the world, the Royal Bengal Tigers are the only tiger species which can swim efficiently in waters too. Wild animals also start behaving like humans if humans start behaving to them like a true human being. The Royal Bengal Tiger became calm when he found that the young boy helped him to get into the boat again. PI hunted a big fish and gave it to Parker to eat it. On that night, a big blue whale showed his acrobatic skills and as a result, PI lost all his food supplies. In the next morning, some big fishes were chasing small fishes and some fishes in Pacific Ocean do have wings to fly also. Mother Nature gifted them so many fishes on the boat. Hunger makes a human behave like a wild animal also. The vegetarian boy ate the raw fish. Hunger and struggle sometimes changes your life and life is the best book of the world to teach you so many things silently. Wild animals cannot be tamed but can be trained easily. Slowly and steadily, the Royal Bengal Tiger became a good friend of PI. After all, both these creatures were part of the same zoo only. 

Again, a deadly sea storm took place. Both PI and Parker were almost starving. On a fine morning, their boat reached an island. Lots of mongoose greeted them. But, on that night, the water pond of that island became acidic and some plants started behaving like carnivorous plants. Actually, in the Mexican coastal forests near Gulf of Mexico, there are lots of carnivorous plants like Pitcher Plants, Sundew Plants, etc. They left that carnivorous island the next morning. God was watching them as he always does and was always giving the signals to follow by remaining completely indifferent to their sufferings. Ultimately, both of them reached the Mexican coast. Richard Parker went into the jungle without bidding goodbye. PI felt disheartened, but was happy that due to Parker, he actually survived and hoped that Parker would also survive in the jungle. The Japanese Cargo Ship had an insurance cover. Piscine slightly fine-tuned the same story to the Inspectors of the Insurance Company. Which story do you prefer? Anyway, it’s your story now. PI had a wife, a cat, a daughter and a son. Though the Royal Bengal Tiger didn’t look back before going inside the Mexican jungle, but, still, it was, nevertheless, a happy ending for the story based on the “LIFE OF PI”.