"" So, you were raised in a zoo?" "" Born and raised "" "In Pondicherry, in what was the French part of India." "My father owned the zoo." "And I was delivered on short notice by a herpetologist, who was there to check on the Bengal monitor lizard." "Mother and I were both healthy, but the poor lizard escaped, and was trampled by a frightened cassowary." "The way of karma, huh?" "The way of God." "That's quite a story." "I'd assumed your father was a mathematician, because of your name." "No, far from it:" "I was named after a swimming pool." "There was a swimming pool named Pi?" "You see, my uncle Francis was born with too much water in his lungs." "They say the doctor swung Francis around by the ankles, to clear the water out." "And that's what gave him his huge chest and skinny legs, that made him such a great swimmer." "Is Francis actually your uncle, he said he was friends with your father?" "Well, he's my honorary uncle." "I call him Mamaji." "My father's best friend, my swimming guru." "I trained with him three times a week at the Ashram." "His lessons would save my life in the end." "A mouthful of water will not harm you." "But panic will." "And remember to breathe now, don't hold your breath." "Good boy." "I hope you don't mind vegetarian." "No, no." "Not at all." " And your name?" " Uh?" "You were going to tell me how you got your name, I think." "Oh yes!" "I got it from something Mamaji once told my father." "You see, most travellers collect postcards or tea cups on their journeys, but not Mamaji." "Mamaji collects swimming pools." "He swims in every pool he comes upon." "One day, Mamaji said to my father, that of all the pools in the world, the most beautiful was a public pool in Paris." "That the water there was so clear, you could make your morning coffee with it." "That a single swim there changed his life." "Before I was born, he said:" "If you want your son to have a clean soul, you must take him one day to swim in the piscine Molitor." "I never understood why my father took this so much to heart." "But he did." "And I was named Piscine Molitor Patel." "Imagine me trying to explain that name." "I barely made it to the age of eleven." "Before¦ Â¨" "Before¦  Hey, Pissing!" "Are you pissing right now?" "Look at him, he is pissing." "With one word, my name went from an elegant French swimming pool to a stinking Indian latrine." "I was pissing everywhere." "No pissing in the schoolyard!" "Even the teacher started doing it." "Not deliberately, of course." "So then¦" "What might occur if you release gas too quickly?" "Pissing?" "He said pissing, guys." "Pissing!" "That's enough!" "Order!" "Order!" "When we returned the next for our first day of school, I was prepared." "Present, sir!" "Piscine Patel." "Good Morning." "I am Piscine Molitor Patel." "Know to all as:" "PI" "The sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet." "Which is also used in mathematics to represent the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter." "An irrational number of infinite length, usually rounded to three digits, as 3 .14," "PI." "Very impressive¦ PI." "Now sit down." " R Velusami?" " Present, sir." "And from then on, you were Pi?" "Well no, not quite." "Nice try, Pissing." "But I still had the whole day ahead of me." "French class was next." "Je m'appelle Piscine Molitor Patel." "Dit:" "Pi." "Then geography." "These are the first twenty decimal places of Pi." "My last class of the day was mathematics." "4¦ 3¦" "7¦ 5¦" "8¦ 5¦ 8¦ 5¦ 8¦" "It's right!" "He's really doing this!" "By the end of that day, I was PI Patel, school legend." "Mamaji tells me you're a legend among sailors, too¦" "Out there, all alone." "Oh, I don't even know how to sail." "And I wasn't alone out there, Richard Parker was with me." "Richard Parker?" "Mamaji, he didn't tell me everything, he just said I should look you up when I got back to Montreal." "So what were you doing in Pondicherry?" "Writing a novel." "By the way, I enjoyed your first book." "So this new one is set in India?" "No, Portugal actually." "But it's cheaper living in India." "Well, I look forward to reading it." "You can't." "I threw it out." "Two years trying to bring this thing to life, and then one day¦ sputtered, coughed and died." "Oh, I'm sorry." "So I was sitting in this coffee house in Pondicherry one afternoon mourning my loss, when this old man at the table next to me, struck up a conversation." "Yeah, Mamaji he does that." "When I told him my abandoned book, he said:" "So, a Canadian who's come to French India, in search for a story." "Well, my friend," "I know an Indian in French Canada, with the most incredible story to tell." "It must be fate that the two of you should meet." "Well, I haven't spoken about Richard Parker in so many years." "So what has Mamaji already told you?" "He said you had a story that would make me believe in God." "He would say that about a nice meal." "As for God, I can only tell you my story." "You'll decide for yourself what you believe." "Fair enough." "Let's see then." "Where to begin?" "Pondicherry¦ is the French Riviera of India." "In this place, closest to the ocean, you might think you are in the south of France." "A few blocks inland, there's a canal." "Just beyond that is Indian Pondicherry." "And the Muslim quarter is just to the west." "When the French handed Pondicherry back to us in 1954, the town decided that some sort of commemoration was in order." "My father was a clever businessman." "He came up with one." "He ran a hotel, and he got the idea to open a zoo in the local botanical gardens instead." "As it also happened, my mother was a botanist in the gardens." "They met, married, and a year later my brother Ravi was born." "I came two years after that." "Sounds magical." "Growing up¦" "Amen." "Yeah, let's eat." "I did not know Hindus said Amen." "Catholic Hindus do." "Catholic Hindus?" "We get to feel guilty before hundreds of gods, instead of just one." "But you're a Hindu first." "None of us knows God until someone introduces us." "I was first introduced to God as a Hindu." "There are 33 million gods in the Hindu religion." "How can I not come to know a few of them?" "I met Krishna first." "The gods were my superheroes, growing up." "Hanuman, the monkey god." "Lifting an entire mountain to save his friend, Lakshmana." "Ganesh, the elephant headed, risking his life to defend the honour of his mother, Parvati." "Vishnu, the supreme soul, the source of all things." "Vishnu sleeps, floating on the shoreless cosmic ocean, and we are the stuff of his dreaming." "Spectacle." "Don't let the stories and pretty lies fool you, boys." "Religion is darkness." "My dear Appa believed himself part of the new India." "As a child, he'd had polio." "He used to lie in bed wracked with pain, wondering where God was." "In the end, God didn't save him, Western medicine did." "My Amma went to college and thought our family was part of the new India as well," "But then her parents cut her off, because they thought she was marrying beneath her." "Our religion was the only link she had to her past." "I met Christ in the mountains when I was 12." "We were visiting relatives, tea growers in Munnar." "It was our third there, Ravi and I were terribly bored." "Challenge." "I'll give you two rupees." "Run into that church, and drink the holy water." "You must be thirsty." "Here." "I brought you this." "Why would a God do that?" "Why would he send his own son to suffer for the sins of ordinary people?" "Because he loves us." "God made himself approachable to us, human, so we could understand him." "We can't understand God nor his perfection." "But we can understand God's son, and his suffering, as we would of brothers." "That made no sense!" "Sacrificing the innocent, to atone for the sins of the guilty, what kind of love is that?" "But this son, I couldn't get him out of my head." "If God is so perfect, and we are not, why would he want to create all this?" "Why does he need us at all?" "All you have to know is that he loves us." "God so loved his world that he gave his only son." "The longer I listened to the priest, the more I came to like the son of God." "Thank you Vishnu, for introducing me to Christ." "I came to faith through Hinduism, and I found God's love through Christ." "But God wasn't finished with me yet." "God works in mysterious ways." "And so it was he introduced himself to me again, this time by the name of Allah." "My Arabic was never very good." "But the sound and feel of the words brought me closer to God." "In performing Salah, the ground I touched became holy ground, and I found a feeling of serenity and brotherhood." "This lamb is exquisite." "It's the best dish on the table." "You're all missing out." "You only need to convert to three more religions, Piscine, and you'll spend your life on holiday." "Are you going to Mecca this year, Swami Jesus?" "Or to Rome for your coronation as Pope Pius?" "You stay out of this, Ravi." "Just like you like cricket, Pi has his own interests." "No, Gita." "Ravi has a point, you know?" "You cannot follow three different religions at the same time, Piscine." "Why not?" "Because, believing in everything at the same time, is the same as not believing in anything at all." "He's young, Santosh." "He's still finding his way." "And how can he find his way, if he does not choose a path?" "Listen, instead of leaping from one religion to the next, why not start with reason?" "In a few hundred years, science has taken us farther in understanding the universe, than religion has in ten thousand." "That is true." "Your father is right." "Science can teach us more about what is out there, but not what is in here." "Yeah." "Some eat meat, some eat vegetable," "I do not expect us to all to agree about everything, but" "I'd much rather have you believe in something I don't agree with, than to accept everything blindly." "And that begins with thinking rationally." "You understand?" "Good." "I would like to be baptized." "So, you're a Christian, and a Muslim." "And an Hindu, of course." "And a Jew, I suppose." "Well I do teach the course on the Kabbala at the University." "And why not?" "Faith is a house with many rooms." "But no room for doubt?" "Oh, plenty." "On every floor." "Doubt is useful." "It keeps Faith a living thing." "After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it has been tested." "Where's Selvam?" "We shouldn't be in here without him." "Stop worrying." "I have seen him do this a thousand times." "I want to meet our new tiger." "Pi!" "Hello?" "Richard Parker?" "Tiger?" "Richard Parker was a tiger?" "Yeah, he got this name through a clerical error." "A hunter caught him drinking from a stream when he was a cub, and named him Thirsty." "When Thirsty got too big, the hunter sold him to our zoo, but the names got switched on the paperwork." "The hunter was listed as Thirsty, and the tiger was called Richard Parker." "We laughed about it." "And the name stuck!" "Let's go¦" "Before we get into trouble!" "I want to see him closer." "You're not the zookeeper!" "Come on!" "Touch it Richard Parker." "It's for you." "No!" "What are you thinking?" "Are you out of your mind?" "Who gave you the permission to come back here?" "You have just ignored everything I've ever taught you?" "I-I just wanted to say Hello to him." "You think that tiger is your friend." "He's an animal, not a playmate!" "Animals have souls." "I have seen it in their eyes." "Find Sylvan." "Animals do not think like we do." "People who forget that, get themselves killed." "That tiger¦ is not your friend." "When you look into his eyes, you are seeing your own emotions reflected back at you." "Nothing else." "You stupid." "Say I'm sorry." "What have you done, Piscine?" "You know what your father said about coming back here?" "I am sorry." "I was¦" "What are you thinking?" "This is between a father and his sons." "Sylvan, cut away!" "He said he's sorry." "You'll just scar them for life." "Scar them?" "That boy almost lost his arm." "But he's just a boy." "He will be a man sooner than you think." "And this is a lesson I do not want them ever to forget!" "Sylvan!" ".. And so has placed the country in a state of emergency" "Under the directive, the states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu will be placed under the direct authority of the central government¦" "Things changed after the day of Appa's lesson." "The world had lost some of its enchantment." "School was a bore, nothing but facts, fractions and French." "Words and patterns that went on and on without end, just like my irrational nickname." "I grew restless, searching for something that might bring meaning back into my life." "And then, I met Anandi." "Mother made me study music." "And one day, my teacher came down with the flu." "He asked if I could take his place, playing rhythms for a dance class." "No!" "If you do not concentrate, you cannot express your love of God through dance." "Feel the ground beneath your feet." "Open your gaze out on to the horizon." "Let that spiritual energy pulse through you, and out into the world." "Through Abhinaya." "Anandi, come to the front, lead them." "Why are you following me?" "What?" "You were following me." "What does this mean?" "In the dance, you went from 'batanka', which means the forest," "And then you did¦ and you did¦" "'Sanputa', which means something that is hidden." "Now for that you did this." "And then you did 'Chatura'." "But at the very end, you did¦ this." "None of the others dancers did that." "What did you mean, the God of love is hiding in the forest?" "No, that also means 'the Lotus flower'." "Lotus flower is hiding in the forest?" "Why would a Lotus flower hide in the forest?" "This is Richard Parker." "He's the most magnificent creature we've ever had here." "Look at the way he's turning his head." "Showing off¦ like a dancer." "No." "He heard something." "He is listening, you see?" "We have talked about it for some time." "Do you understand what I'm saying?" "Pi!" "Uh sorry, you've been¦" "Worried." "For my family." "Our animals are worth far more abroad than here in India." "And if the town council stops supporting us, I don't know where we will be." "So, it is what we have to do." "Do you understand?" "I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" "We are leaving India." "What?" "We are selling the zoo." "The zoo was never ours to sell, the land belongs to the town." "But the animals are ours." "And if we sell them, we will have enough to start a new life." "But where would we go?" "Our life is here, Appa!" "Canada." "I have some opportunities for work in Winnipeg." "I'll be shipping most of the animals for sale in North America, we can get freighter passage for the whole family." "So¦ It's settled." "We will sail like Columbus." "But Columbus was looking for India!" "It takes a lot of work to sell a zoo." "Before we left, Anandi and I had time enough to break each other's heart." "Of course, I'd promised I would come back one day." "It's funny¦" "I remember everything else about our last day." "But I don't remember saying goodbye." "Pi?" "They're serving dinner below." "Piscine." "You have a whole life ahead of you." "We are doing this for you and Ravi." "Come inside and have some dinner." "Vegetarian, please." "Oh, my sons and I are vegetarians." "Do you have anything- No no no no no!" "Not for gravy." "You don't want gravy?" "Pas de probleme." "Pardon." "Pas de probleme." "Hello." "I am happy Buddhist." "So I eat rice next to gravy." "I'm sure, gravy is not meat." "Is taste." "You try?" "Don't worry." "We will have plenty of fresh supplies after we stop in Manila." "Why give Orange Juice tranquilizers?" "He's not going to cause any trouble." "The stress of travelling is not good for the animals, and it helps with the sea sickness." "We don't want to be cleaning up, after a seasick orangutan." "Do we?" "My father was a businessman." "He had never tended the animals himself." "I realized leaving India must have been harder for him than it was for me." "So?" "Yeah, have I forgotten anything?" "I think you set the stage," "So far, we have an Indian boy named after a French swimming pool, on a Japanese ship full of animals, heading to Canada." "Yes!" "Now we have to send our boy into the middle of the Pacific, and¦" "And make me believe in God." "Yeah." "We'll get there." "It was four days out of Manila, above the Mariana trench, the deepest part on earth." "Our ship, the Simsum, pushed on, bullishly indifferent to its surroundings." "It moved with the slow massive confidence of a continent." "Did you hear that, Ravi?" "Yes, what do you think?" "It's a thunderstorm, let's go and watch." "Are you crazy?" "We will get hit by lightning." "No, we won't, it'll hit the bridge first." "Don't tempt the storm, Pi." "Oya!" "Hurray!" "God's storm!" "Ma!" "Apa!" "Ravi!" "Get out!" "Get out!" "Please save my family!" "Don't scare, okay?" "Stay here!" "You have to help my family!" "We have to help them!" "My family is back there!" "Leave now!" "We have to go!" "Who let all the animals out, uh?" " We have to go now!" " No please, my father!" "He's got to go!" "There!" "Look there!" "Zebra!" "Zebra!" "Hey!" "Over here!" "Over here!" "Richard Parker?" "No!" "No!" "No!" "Go away!" "Go away!" "Ama!" "Apa!" "Ravi!" "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry!" "Looks as though your drugs haven't worn off yet." "Orange Juice!" "Orange Juice!" "Welcome to Pi's ark." "Where is your boy, Orange Juice?" "Don't worry." "I bet mother and father found him." "They'll all be here soon." "Hello!" "Hello!" "Anybody!" "No!" "Stop it!" "No!" "Stop it!" "Stop it!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "Sorry, Orange Juice," "I don't have any sea sickness medicine for you." "Is it right?" "Is it right?" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "Common!" "Common!" "Common!" "My name is Pi Patel." "I have been in a shipwreck." "I am on a lifeboat, alone¦ with a tiger." "Please send help." "God¦" "I give myself to You." "I am your vessel." "Whatever comes, I want to know." "Show me." "There are no lines." "Set your house in order, and dig in for the battle to survive." "Establish a strict schedule for eating, keeping watch, and getting rest." "Do not drink urine or seawater." "Keep busy, but avoid unnecessary exertion." "The mind can be kept get occupied by playing card games," "Twenty Questions or Eye Spy." "Community singing is another sure-fire way to lift the spirits." "Telling stories is highly recommended." "Above all, don't lose hope." "Few things can sap the spirit faster than sea sickness." "Waves are more strongly felt when the boat turns sideways to the current." "A sea anchor is used as a drag to keep the boats head to the wind." "Proper use of them can increase control, and reduce sea sickness during rough seas." "For castaways who must share their lifeboats with large dangerous carnivores, it's advisable to establish your territory as your own." "Try this method." "Step 1:" "Choose a day when waves are moderate, but regular." "Step 2:" "With the lifeboat facing into the waves, making the ride as comfortable as possible, blow your whistle soothingly." "Step 3:" "Turn the lifeboat sideways to the waves, accompanied by harsh, aggressive use of the whistle." "With sufficient repetition, the animal will associate the sound of the whistle with the discomfort of sea sickness." "Similar methods have long been used by circus trainers, though they generally lack access to rough seas." "Let the trumpets blow!" "Let the drum-rolls begin!" "Prepare to be amazed!" "Here it is, for your enjoyment, and instruction." "The show you've been waiting for all your life, will soon begin!" "Are you ready for the miracle event?" "Well done!" "I give to you, the astounding Bengal tiger!" "Hello, Richard Parker." "Sorry for the choppy ride." "Mine!" "You understand?" "Yours!" "Mine!" "You understand?" "Step 4:" "Disregard steps 1 through 3." "Here, Richard Parker." "I got some water for you." "In the zoo, we fed our tigers an average of five kilos of meat a day." "Richard Parker will be getting hungry soon." "Tigers are powerful swimmers, and if he gets hungry enough," "I'm afraid the little bit of water between us won't be any protection." "I need to find a way to feed him." "I can eat the biscuits, but God made tigers carnivores," "So I must learn to catch fish." "If I don't," "I'm afraid his last meal will be a skinny vegetarian boy." "Patience!" "Wait!" "Thinking." "Two cartons of biscuits¦" "93 cans of water¦" "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "Thank you, Lord Vishnu!" "Thank you for coming in the form of a fish and saving our life!" "Thank you!" "Of course, I brought all the biscuits and water on the raft with me, to keep them safe¦" "Idiot." "Hunger can change everything you ever thought you knew about yourself." "Here, it's yours!" "It's time to settle this." "If we're going to live together, we have to learn to communicate." "Maybe Richard Parker can't be tamed." "But with God's will, he can be trained." "No!" "Good." "Go, Richard Parker." "Go!" "Go on home, I'll leave you alone." "I'll respect that, promise." "Go!" "Come on!" "Yes!" "I never thought a small piece of shade could bring me so much happiness." "That a pile of tools, a bucket, a knife, a pencil, might become my greatest treasures, without knowing Richard Parker was here might ever bring me peace." "In times like these," "I remember that he has as little experience of the real world as I do." "We were both raised in a zoo by the same master." "Now we've been orphaned, left to face our ultimate master together." "Without Richard Parker, I would have died by now." "My fear of him keeps me alert." "Tending to his needs gives my life focus." "Dolphins." "Hey, Richard Parker!" "Hey!" "Words are all I have left to hang on to." "Everything mixed up; fragmented." "Can't tell day dreams, night dreams from reality anymore." "A storm, Richard Parker!" "Christ needs you, God!" "Longing for his words!" "The compassionate!" "The merciful!" "Come out!" "Richard Parker!" "Come out, you have to see this!" "It's beautiful!" "Don't hide yourself!" "He's come to us!" "It's a vision!" "Come on, this is God, Richard Parker!" "Why are you scaring him?" "I've lost my family," "I've lost everything!" "I surrender!" "What more do you want?" "I'm sorry, Richard Parker." "We're dying, Richard Parker." "I'm sorry." "Amma¦" "Appa, Ravi." "Appa, Ravi, I'm happy I'm going to see you soon." "Can you feel the rain?" "God¦" "Thank you for giving me my life." "I'm ready now." "Richard Parker." "Hey." "Get away!" "It's my bed." "It was a human tooth." "Don't you see the island was carnivorous?" "Carnivorous?" "Like a Venus fly trap?" "Yes." "The whole island." "The plants, the water and those pools, the very ground itself." "During the day, those pools held fresh water." "But at night, some chemical process turned the water in those pools into acid." "Acid that dissolved those fish." "That sent the meerkats scurrying into the trees, and Richard Parker running to the boat." "But where'd the tooth come from?" "Years ago, some poor fellow just like me must have found himself stranded on that island." "And like me, he thought he might stay there forever." "But all that the island gave him by day, it took away again by night." "To think how many hours he spent, with only meerkats for company." "How much loneliness taken on him." "All I know is that eventually he died, and the island digested him, leaving behind only his teeth." "I saw how my life would end, if I stayed on that island." "Alone, forgotten." "I had to get back to the world, or die trying." "I spent the next day preparing the boat." "I filled my stores with fresh water, ate sea weed until my stomach could take no more, and brought as many meerkats as I could fit into the storage locker for Richard Parker." "I couldn't leave without him, of course." "It would be killing him." "And so I waited for his return." "I knew he wouldn't be late." "Richard Parker!" "No one has seen that floating island since." "And you won't read about those trees in any nature book." "And yet, if I hadn't found those shores, I would have died." "And if I hadn't discovered that tooth, I would have been lost, alone forever." "Even when God seemed to have abandoned me, he was watching." "Even when he seemed indifferent to my suffering, he was watching." "And when I was beyond all hope of saving, he gave me rest." "That gave me a sign to continue my journey." "By the time we reached the Mexican shore," "I was afraid to let go of the boat." "My strength was gone, I was so weak." "I was afraid that in two feet of water, so close to deliverance, I would drown." "I struggled to shore, and fell upon the sand." "It was warm and soft, like pressing my face against the cheek of God." "And somewhere, two eyes were smiling at having me there." "I was so spent, I could hardly move." "And so Richard Parker went ahead of me." "He stretched his legs, and walked along the shore." "At the edge of the jungle, he stopped." "I was certain he was going to look back to me." "Flatten his ears to his head, growl, that he would bring our relationship to an end in some way." "But he just stared ahead into the jungle." "And then, Richard Parker, my fierce companion, the terrible one who kept me alive¦" "disappeared forever from my life." "After a few hours, a member of my own species found me." "He left and returned with a group who carried me away." "I wept like a child, not because I was overwhelmed at having survived, although I was." "I was weeping because Richard Parker left me¦ so unceremoniously." "It broke my heart." "You know, my father was right." "Richard Parker never saw me as his friend." "After all we had been through, he didn't even look back." "But I have to believe there was more in these eyes than my own reflection staring back at me." "I know it, I felt it." "Even if I can't prove it." "You know, I've left so much behind¦ my family, the zoo, India, Anandi¦" "I suppose in the end the whole of life becomes an act of letting go." "But what always hurts the most, is not taking a moment to say goodbye." "I was never able to thank my father, for all I'd learnt from him." "To tell him without his lessons¦" "I would never have survived!" "I know Richard Parker's a tiger, but¦" "I wish I had said:" "It's over, we survived¦ thank you for saving my life." "I love you, Richard Parker." "You'll always be with me¦" "But I can't be with you." "I don't know what to say." "It's hard to believe, isn't it?" "It is a lot to take in¦ to figure out what that all means." "No, if it happened, it happened." "Why should it have to mean anything?" "But some of it is pretty incredible." "See, I was the only one who survived the shipwreck." "The Japanese shipping company sent two men to talk to me, in the Mexican hospital where I was recovering." "I still have a copy of the report." "They had insurance claims to settle." "They wanted to find out why the ship sank." "They didn't believe me, either." "Thousands of meerkats, on an floating carnivorous island, and no one has ever seen it." "Yes." "Just like I told you." "Bananas don't float." "You said the orangutan floated to you on a bundle of bananas, but bananas don't float." "Of course they do, you try it for yourself!" "In any case, we are not here to talk about bananas or meerkats." "Look, I just told a long story, and I'm very tired." "We are here because a Japanese cargo ship sank in the Pacific!" "Something I'll never forget." "I lost my whole family." "We don't mean to push you." "And you have our deepest sympathies." "But we have come a long way, and we are no closer to understanding why the ship sank." "Because I don't know!" "I was asleep, something woke me up, it could have been an explosion, I can't be sure." "And then the ship sank." "What else do you want from me?" "A story that won't make us look like fools." "We need a simpler story for our report." "One our company can understand." "A story we can all believe." "So a story without things you've never seen before." "That's right." "Without surprises, without¦ animals or islands." "Yes." "The truth." "So¦ what did you do?" "I told them another story." "Four of us survived, the cook and the sailor were already aboard." "The cook threw me a life buoy and pull me aboard, and Mother held on some bananas and made it to the life boat." "The cook¦ was a disgusting man." "He ate a rat!" "We had food enough for weeks, but he found the rat in the first few days and he killed it, he dried it in the sun and ate it." "Such a brute, that man." "But he was resourceful." "It was his idea to build the raft to catch fish, we would have died in those first few days without him." "The sailor was the same man who brought rice and gravy, the Buddhist." "We didn't understand much what he said, only that he was suffering." "He'd broken his leg horribly in the fall." "We tried to set it as best we could, but the leg became infected." "And the cook said that we had to do something, but he¦ died." "The cook said he'd do it, but mother and I had to hold the man down." "And I believed him, we needed to do it." "So¦" "I kept saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry." "He just kept looking at me, his eyes were so¦" "I'll never understand the point of that man's suffering." "I can still hear him," "A happy Buddhist who only ate rice and gravy" "We didn't save him, of course." "He died." "The morning after the cook got his first dorado and I didn't understand what he'd done at first, but Mother did, and I had never seen Mother so angry." "Stop whining and be happy, he said." "We need more food or we'll die, this was the whole point!" "" "What was the whole point, mother asked?" "You let that poor boy die in order to get bait, you monster!" "He got furious, he started towards her with his fists raised," "And Mother slapped him hard right across the face!" "I was stunned!" "I thought he was going to kill her right then." "But he didn't¦" "The cook didn't stop with bait either, no¦" "The sailor¦ he went the same way the rat went." "The cook was a resourceful man." "It was a week later that he¦ because of me." "Because I couldn't hold on this stupid turtle." "It slipped out of my hands and swam away, and the cook came up, and he punched me on the side of my head, and my teeth clacked and I saw stars," "I thought he was going to hit me again, but Mother started pounding on him, with her fists, screaming monster, monster!" "" "She yelled at me to go to the raft." "Ni po da!" "" "I thought she was coming with me, or I'd never have!" "I don't know why I didn't make her go first." "I think about that every day." "I jumped over and turned back just as the knife came out." "There wasn't anything I could do." "Couldn't look away¦" "He threw her body overboard, and then the sharks came." "And I saw her, they¦" "saw¦" "Next day, I killed him." "He didn't even fight back, he knew he'd gone too far." "Even by his own standards." "He left the knife out on the bench, and I did to him what he did to the sailor." "He was such an evil man, but worse still he¦" "He brought the evil out in me!" "And I have to live with that." "I was alone in the lifeboat¦ drifting across the Pacific ocean¦" "and I survived." "After that, they had no more questions." "The investigators didn't seem to like the story, exactly." "They thanked me." "They wished me well¦ and they left." "So the story is¦" "Both the zebra and the sailor¦ broke their leg." "And a hyena killed the zebra and the orangutan." "So¦" "The hyena is the cook¦ the sailor is the zebra¦ your mother is the orangutan." "And¦ you're¦" "the tiger." "Can I ask you something?" "Of course." "I told you two stories about what happened out in the ocean¦" "Neither explains what caused the sinking of the ship." "And no one can prove which story is true and which is not." "In both stories, the ship sinks, my family dies, and I suffer." "True." "So which story do you prefer?" "The one with the tiger." "That's the better story." "Thank you." "And so it goes with God." "Mamaji was right." "It's an amazing story." "Will you really let me write it?" "Of course." "Isn't that why Mamaji sent you here, after all?" "My wife is here." "Do you want to stay for dinner?" "She's an incredible cook!" "I didn't know you had a wife." "And a cat and two children." "So your story does have an happy ending." "Well¦ that's up to you." "The story is yours now." "Mr. Patel's is an astounding story." "Of courage and endurance, unparalleled in the history of shipwrecks." "Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea." "And none in the company¦ of an adult Bengal tiger." " Hi, Dad." " Get in." "We have a guest, let me introduce you." "Hi." "Very nice to meet you." "Adika." "Ravi."