My name is Piscine Molitor Patel, known to all as Pi Patel.
My father owned Pondicherry zoo when I was younger. Though we had to sell it and move to Canada.
π = 3.141593 and so forth.
Pi is an irrational mathematical number, used to calculate distance in a circle. Often shortened to 3.14, pi has so many decimal places that the human mind can’t accurately comprehend it, just as, realities are too difficult or troubling to face.
All I want to do is love God.

"Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed, hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see the God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God are hat wearing Muslims." — Yann Martel

ABOUT THE BLOG

I began Pi’s ‘About me’ section with defining his name. I feel that it is an important theme of how there are some things in life we cannot understand, just like the equation π. This is where the name of my blog started. The name Pi represents the incomprehensible equation and life itself. As I skimmed through the novel I began to brainstorm my visual ideas for my blog. I started to think about a background color and decided to keep it simple with a pattern that looks like waves or wind. It represents the vast ocean Pi was trapped in. Next came the animals, they are suppose to be there to remind Pi of his journey and how he changed. Lastly I ended it with a quote that ties in all three religions. Pi believes in all three religions even though others say he should only choose one. All he wants to do is love God.

I choose to do my font color in blue and orange because blue represents the sea and Pi’s journey, while orange represents hope as seen in different objects throughout the novel. Than example would be Orange Juice and how she made Pi feel safe, and the orange whistle could be blown to safety. Most of the images I used are from google, though edited to be transparent on Photoshop. I also took some photos, such as the fourth post.

Lastly, I choose a marine life blog, religionfacts.com, www.canada.gc.ca as the links because throughout P’s journey in the sea he probably saw many marine life that he is curious about and maybe even developed a interest in them. (located at the bottom of the page) Religion, something Pi was always interested in. I am sure he would want to study different religions around the world. I choose the Canadian official website because before the ship sank Pi and his family were making their way to Canada.Pi would likely be interest in the new country.

MY SAVAGE NATURE

     Right in front of me I saw my mother die in the hands of the evil, greedy cook. Days gone by with me ignoring and avoiding him. He kept me alive like a bad conscience and gave me food to eat. We ended up fighting. I was able to stab him with a knife that was in plain view. We both could see it, all along on the bench. How come he didn’t pick it up? “He had no expression on his face, neither of despair nor of anger, neither of fear nor of pain.” (344) I began to stab him multiple times, his blood soothed me and made my heart pound. This evil man deserves to die, I’ll take my revenge form mother. I started drinking his blood, it tasted better than a turtles blood. His liver, his flesh. I ate it all. “ He was such an evil man. Worse still, he met evil in me - selfishness, anger, ruthlessness. I must live with that.” (345)

COMMUNICATION

Today we came upon trash floating around the ocean. In a variety of forms and colors I saw lumber, beer cans, wine bottles, tatters of cloth, buts of rope and surrounding it all, yellow foam. As I looked around for some useful objects, I came across an empty corked wine bottle and I decided to grab it. I opened it up and it smelt horrible! The strong smell made my head reel, my stomach churn and my legs wobble. I began writing a message in the bottle. “ Japanese-owned cargo ship Tsimtsum, flying Panamanian flag, sank July 2nd, 1977, in Pacific, four days out of Manila. Am in lifeboat. Pi Patel my name. Have some food, some water, but Bengal tiger a serious problem. Please advise family in Winnipeg, Canada. Any help very much appreciated. Thank you.” (264) I hoped this message will be found someday. I sealed the letter inside the bottle and launched it hoping it will get across to someone.

HOPE AND DESPAIR

Today I awoke seeing a ship in the distance, it looked like an oil tanker. I began shouting in joy and telling Richard Parker we are saved. At that moment I was overwhelmed with happiness. All hurt and frustration feel away and was reduced to positively blazed joy. During that moment I began to think of my family. What if they didn’t survive…? No, I thought. They are probably in Canada waiting eagerly for my arrival! As the tanker came closer to me I soon realized it was simply not coming out way, we missed crashing into it by less than 2 feet away. Richard Parker barked, and I fires off a rocket flare poorly, blew my whistle with all my might and shouted at the top of my lungs. My cry for rescue did not reach the tanker… 20 minutes later silence has fallen upon us once again and I felt longing hurt, anguish, loneliness and stress. 

MY WILL TO SURVIVE

     Today I spent my time on the raft catching food for Richard Parker and I. Needless to say, the success was slow, the hours were long, the fish were small, and Richard Parker was forever hungry. Each day I improved greatly and started using a cargo net to catch more fish. I ate more than I needed during these days that the fish scales made me glitter under the sunlight. The marks of color looked like clothing Hindu’s wear to represent the divine.

     Turtles are the easiest to catch, just like what the survival manual said. They also provided more meat the hawksbills. Though they are sometimes too big and hard to lift out of the water for a weakened castaway like me. Sometimes I begin to think about my journey, the strict vegetarian that I use to be. “To think that when I was a child I always shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animal’s neck.” (218) I can’t help it. The only access to food was to kill. Lord, forgive me…