Questioning the Life of Pi

To say that i did not understand the Life of Pi is not exactly true. The book was gripping, the story was exciting, the movie was spectacular but the climax was shocking. Whoever heard of having a choice of picking your own version for the story?

I remember reading a particular kind of book when i was a kid, the kind of one which had a choice to make at each step of the way: if you think he opened the door to the right, go to page 32, if you think he opened the door on the left, go to page 45. I was never satisfied with those kinds of books... Made me feel that i was not getting the full picture. Made me feel i had missed out on something exciting. And also, there was the question of what if i felt that he did not open either of the door, what if he left through the window? Anyway, i was never impressed with those kinds of books.

It was not the ending that has to be decided in life of Pi. Pi is alive. He is saved. I just had to come to peace with whether Pi really spent 227 days with the tiger, Richard Parker, or did he survive the 227 days alone and covered up his sad story of murdering his mother's murderer by becoming the tiger Richard Parker himself?

Wont not believing that Pi spent 227 days with the tiger become an insult to the bestseller writer? He did most convincingly and painstakingly explain over the 100 pages how that ready did happen? I did read the whole book, believing that anything is possible in life, if we only put our heart and soul into it? And Richard Parker is a zoo-trained animal. But hold on, didnt his father also say and create a scene that tigers can never actually be tamed or trained? Is that a clue to the second version being the true one?

Should i believe the distraught face Irrfan Khan had when he told the human-version of his story? Is this the true one then? Men like the cook are very much alive and around us just like the devils in the Delhi case. They sadly show us that people are capable of doing anything and everything including that which would be considered inhuman or downright macabre. I can believe that Pi tranforms into Richard Parker too, much like Smeagol becomes Gollum or like Gange becoming Nagavalli under these extreme circumstances.

The book tossed me a real googly when it went for the other blind shipwrecked person with the French accent who admitted killing a man and a woman. I was as blind as Pi was in fixing this piece into the two possible jigsaw puzzles. If Pi is with the tiger, then, is this person the cook who killed Pi's mom and the Buddhist sailor? How does this guy fit in the human version, where the only French guy to whom we are introduced to is already dead?

And what is it about the carnivorous island in the Pacific? Why was this island so important? To show that God is still watching over you, even when it doesnt feel like it? Remember in the movie Signs, Mel Gibson says that there are two kinds of people- People who believe that the occurrences are pure luck, nothing more. And another group of people who believe that these occurrences are more than just luck, they are signs from an Almighty, watching over them. Why give Pi a choice again- to either enjoy the plenty of the island and die slowly at the hands of a faceless enemy or face the mighty Pacific and have a chance at life?

Where in the story does Pi make a person believe in God? The mere fact that he survived 227 days in the Pacific with the tiger within or without? The boundless expanse of the ocean and sky or the tremendous power of the lightning, the spurts of flying fish just falling into the mouth of Richard Parker at the moment of need or just the fact that he is on a lifeboat when countless perished?

And why do i have so many questions regarding the book even after finishing reading it and watching the movie in spectacular 3D? And do these questions arise only because there is a book has an open ending? Will i be thinking so hard, if it had a definitive end?