Life of Pi (2012) · 31 quotes
What has Mamaji already told you?
Writer
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 then decide for yourself what you believe.
Writer
Fair enough.
Writer
I didn't know Hindus said "Amen."
Catholic Hindus do.
Writer
Catholic Hindus?
We get to feel guilty before hundreds of gods, instead of just one.
Writer
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.
Writer
So, you're a Christian, and a Muslim.
And a Hindu of course.
Writer
And a Jew, I suppose?
Well, I do teach a course on Kabbalah at the university. And why not? Faith is a house with many rooms.
Writer
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.
Writer
I think, you've 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 uh…
Writer
And make me believe in God.
Yeah. We'll get there. It was four days out of Manila, above the Mariana Trench, the deepest spot on Earth. Our ship, the Tsimtsum, pushed on, bullishly indifferent to its surroundings. It moved with the slow, massive confidence of a continent.
Writer
It was a human tooth?
Don't you see? The island was carnivorous.
Writer
Carnivorous? Like a Venus Flytrap?
Yes. The whole island. The plants, the water in 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.
Writer
But where did 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 spent with only meerkats for company. How much loneliness taken on. 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 and 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 seaweed 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 mean killing him. And so I waited for his return. I knew he wouldn't be late. 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. 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, then 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 at 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 his 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 learnt from him. To tell him without all his lessons I would never have survived. I know that Richard Parker is 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. May God be with you."
Writer
I don't know what to say.
It's hard to believe isn't it.
Writer
It is a lot to take in, to figure out what it all means.
Oh, if it happened it happened. Why does it have to mean anything?
Writer
Some of it is pretty incredible.
Four of us survived. The cook and the sailor were already aboard. The cook threw me a life buoy and pulled me aboard and Mother held on to some bananas and made it to the lifeboat. 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, dried it in the sun and ate it. He was 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 of what he said, only that he was suffering. He had broken his leg horribly in the fall. We tried to set it best we could, but the leg became infected, and the cook said we had to do something or he'd die. 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", and he just kept looking at me. His eyes were so… I'll never understand the point of that man suffering. I can still hear him. The happy Buddhist, he only ate rice and gravy. We didn't save him of course. He died. The morning after, the cook caught his first dorado and I didn't understand what he had 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. That was the whole point." "What was the whole point?" Mother asked. "You let that poor boy die in order to get bait, you monster!" The cook got furious. He started towards her with his fist raised, and Mother slapped him hard, right across the face. I was stunned. I thought he was going to kill her right there and then. But he didn't. The cook didn't stop at 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 to a 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 got to the raft. I thought she was going with me, or I'd never have… I didn'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. I couldn't look away. He threw her body overboard. And then the sharks came, and I saw what they… I saw. The next day I killed him. He didn't even fight back. He knew he had gone too far, even by his own standards. He left out the knife on the bench and I did to him what he did to the sailor. He was such an evil man, but worse still, he brought out the evil in me. I have to live with that. I was alone in a life boat, 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, but they thanked me, they wished me well, and they left.
Writer
So the stories — both the zebra and the sailor broke their leg. And the 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? I've told you two stories about what happened out on 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.
Writer
True.
So which story do you prefer?
Writer
The one with the tiger. That's the better story.
Thank you. And so it goes with God.
Writer
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.
Writer
I didn't know you had a wife.
And a cat and two children.
Writer
So your story does have a happy ending.
Well, that's up to you. The story is yours now.
