Tales of Pi 6-7

The Tales of Pi - #6

The author is seated inside the Indian Coffee House and like any other writer was looking at the world go by. Maybe he exhibiting signs of restlessness, maybe sporting a blank look on his face. All around him there is the hustle and bustle of an Indian coffee shop in a crowded Indian city. He befriends this elderly man who had ‘great shocks of white hair’. The usual conversation between a curious local and backpacker ensues. When the elderly man learns that the foreigner is a writer he was amused and ‘his eyes widened and he nodded his head’ When the author is about to leave, the elderly man makes a statement that becomes the crux of the novel. ‘I have a story that will make you believe in God’ he tells the author and asks to visit Canada to meet the main character of the story. He encourages the author to ask ‘all the questions that he wants’. Yann Martel has said that he was a non-believer and in the article in The Guardian he talks about this.’ At the end of 1996, as a hard-up writer with two little-known books to his name, he backpacked to the Indian subcontinent and was, he says, “dazzled”. He enjoyed visiting Hindu temples, but found himself absorbed in other religions too: “Round the corner from where the Hindu gods lived there was always a church or a mosque or a temple of another faith.” Martel’s upbringing had been non-religious, but in India he realized he was “tired of being reasonable”; it was leading him nowhere.’ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/04/books-interview-yann-martel-the-high-mountains-of-portugal. There is also this connection in our country between animals and religion which created in Martel to delve deeper into faith. Life of Pi is also Life of faith and belief. 

Tales of Pi #7

The novel, Life of Pi is divided into three parts and all the three parts are based on three locations underlining again the importance of ‘space’ in contemporary literature. All three spaces mentioned in the book is connected by the ocean. The diminutive sized ship/floating vessel in the cover page for Part 1 also reminds me of NGC explorer Paul Salopek’s narrative of the human migration from Africa to the other parts of the world. Even Cheron and his boat trips across the river Styx (memory and forgetfulness) can be used as reference here. The ship also becomes a symbol of hope and it offers the possibility of starting a new life in a new land. Alan Kurdi’s image brings us closer to the perils involved in this great human migration which we have read in the poignant tale by John Steinbeck – Grapes of Wrath. The title of the novel by Deepak Unnikrishnan - Temporary People talks about the Middle East expatriate population. The tale is also the tale of the Con-temporary people. The opening lines of Chapter one is all about the state of a new face in the ‘unaccustomed earth’. For Pi, the struggles were extreme and he was alone in the gloomy world. He narrates his experience of visiting an Indian Restaurant in Canada and how he used his fingers to gobble down the south Indian food. The waiter with a critical look on his face asks ‘Fresh off the boat. are you? Pi says that the waiter had no idea how deeply those words wounded him. ‘They were like nails being drive into my flesh. I picked up the knife and fork. I hardly ever used such instruments. My hands trembled. My sambar lost its taste’. (P#7) 

Tales of Pi 1-5

The Tales of Pi - #1

á mes parents et à mon frère – (to my parents and to my brother)  

The dedication that precedes the author’s note is a reminder of the lives lost during the perilous voyage in the Pacific Ocean. There is loneliness and a sense of rootlessness in these words. The heaviness of 227 adrift days is reflected in this dedication. The dedication also brings in the fact that the speaker is alone on one side and the other members of his family are together on the other side. The dedication is also a journey from hope to hopelessness. ‘I returned scrutinizing the horizon, my hopes high’ (P#122) versus ‘I looked out at the empty horizon. There was so much water. And I was all alone. All Alone. I burst into hot tears. I buried my face in my crossed arms and sobbed. My situation was patently hopeless (P#169) 

The Tales of Pi - #2

In the author’s note, the author in the novel talks about being restless and how little money he had with him. He goes on to describe the three reasons why he journeyed to India. The first two reasons are really interesting - that a stint in India will beat the restlessness out of any living creature and a little money can go a long way in India. The way the world looks at India is worth exploring here. Victoria and Abdul, Eat, Pray and Love, These Foolish Things (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), and Passage to India are some of the literary works that explored this subject matter. 

The Tales of Pi - #3

As the author in the novel (maybe Yann Martel himself) gets ready for his trip to India, his friend warns him about the funny English that people speak and also the word bamboozle which means ‘cheat or fool’. As a writer, this is exactly what he plans to do. To write a novel set in Portugal without visiting the country. In the first few lines of the note he says, ‘a novel set in Portugal in 1939 may have very little do with Portugal in 1939’ and in the very next page he defines ‘fiction as the selective transformation of reality’ and he ends the argument with the question – What need did I have to go to Portugal? So, Is fiction trying to bamboozle the reader? 

The Tales of Pi - #4

The struggles of a writer to create something unique is the main idea that is portrayed in these lines. Just like Pi who tried to make meaning/value out of his sudden and unexpected orphan status, the writer tries for some truthfulness in his writing. He is aware of the moment that robs him off the spark or the element and he talks about the death of the story. The writer feels as if his ‘soul is destroyed’ and there is ‘an aching hunger’ inside him to create something with which can connect emotionally. He was restless once again. Like George Herbert’s ‘The Pulley” which ends with these lines 

“Yet let him keep the rest, 

But keep them with repining restlessness; 

Let him be rich and weary, that at least, 

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness 

May toss him to my breast.”

The author is preparing himself and his readers for the great tryst with God. 

Since Canine literature is the talk of the day at RR with the lovely Nerudian lines and the subsequent discussions, I would like to share a personal literary creation of mine – a short story (if we can name it so) A story which I wrote in the year 2006, in the month of February while travelling in Mangalore Mail from my hometown to Chennai. This story is inspired by the Dachshund who died on November 11,2005. This story occurred in my mind because of the emotional connection I had with the dog who was the best we had in our family. The author in the author’s note is so correct when he says that we cannot write if we don’t have the emotional connect. Even to understand religion we need emotions and that extra spark to see God -the ultimate creator. 

These personal interpretations of Life of Pi by Yann Martel, are usually written while listening to the soulful music of Mychael Danna, the genius behind the OST. It helps me to connect emotionally with the life of Pi and his tales. 

The Tales of Pi - #5

One of the main motifs in the novel is the journey. It is both internal and external, physical and psychological. Every time I read the lines of Yann Martel I feel the hard work that has gone into the preparation of this masterpiece. I remember reading about Manjula Padmanabhan who locked herself up in a room to write Harvest and how it won the first Onassis award for Theater. It is a solitary process and like the journey, it should be undertaken alone. The words of William Hazlitt from his essay ‘On Going on A Journey’ reverberates in my mind. ‘One of the pleasantest things in the world is going a journey, but I like to do it myself’. The first quote from Life of Pi above contains the emphasize on the personal pronoun ‘I’ – I still had money, I was restless and I got up and I walked out…More like the Ulysses, the author continues on his journey and he takes his readers along with him. The next quote begins with the word – ‘I arrived’ which is an important stage in one’s life. Buddha ‘arrived’ when he sat under the Banyan Tree. Heinrich Harrer ‘arrived’ when he landed in Tibet and makes the profound discovery when he listens to the extraordinary wisdom from an ordinary tailor who tells him- “there is another great difference between our civilization and yours. You admire the man who pushes his way to the top in any walk of life, while we admire the man who abandons his ego.” 

The author arrives in Pondicherry which is just 150 km from Chennai. A magical land for the author because he meets three cultures there – One is the colonial French culture, then we have the Tamil culture and the Indian culture. A perfect case study for multiculturalism, assimilation, hybridity, identity crisis, acculturation and globalization. All these ideas shape the themes and writing of contemporary literature. The journey continues…