Meditations on the movie "Life of Pie"

A boy named Pi having curiosities about life, whose answers he seeks through different religions. And because he is not in it to form opinions or to appear as if he knows a thing or two about life, a three-in-one religious identity naturally takes shape in him. He is not a Hindu turned Muslim turned Christian. He is a Hindu cum Muslim cum Christian, aspiring to see through the veil of rituals and dogmas in each one of them.

His father sees this as a blind approach and says, "I would much rather have you believe in something I don't agree with than to accept everything blindly, and that... begins with thinking rationally."

Thinking rationally.

True. The road to the altar of Faith is paved with the asphalt of mind which can question.

But that's not true for most of us. Our version of faith implies the reasoning mind be impaled on the spear of our lazy tendency to accept things as they are so that we can spare ourselves from the effort that the reasoning mind demands. This faith is blind, violent.

If only we could learn from the birds how flight in the skies is possible if we use our wings of reason fully while also having faith that the air can carry its weight. If only we could know that reason and faith can co-exist. If only.....

As he grows into adulthood, his restlessness grows but the good thing is that he doesn't let it turn into a dormant fanaticism. He, instead, embarks on the journey of search which takes him to the likes of Dostoevsky and Camus.

Just because you don't know something doesn't mean you have to force some ready-made answer upon yourself. Acknowledging the absence of knowledge and then seeking its manifestation is the way of a sane person.

The story progresses further for some time and then comes the point when life seemingly says "let the trial begin" as a seaship, on its way to Canada, gets struck by a formidable and tumultuous storm which gulps in everything except Pi, a lifeboat, and Richard Parker - the name of a tiger.

In the middle of nowhere.

Alone with an animal which loves flesh.

Water and uncertainty all around.

No hard objects or outlines in the distant. Only horizon.

Apparently locked in a prison too wide and open to have its walls visible.

This situation deserves a moment of contemplation:

What should he do now? Should he start cursing his fate? Should he blame the world? Should he lose all sense of humanity and let his brute nature take the driver seat? Should he slip into despair and kill himself? Or should he just wait for some out-of-nowhere kind of miracle?

He doesn't do any of it.

Why?

Because he is Man - a unique combination of mind and heart, of logic that can solve and love that can salve, of reason that can cut like a sword and faith that can heal like a soma.

Being left alone with an animal which is stronger and loves the taste of your flesh, being left alone in the waters that can't be drunk, mind plays a significant role in ensuring that you survive - which it surely does for Pi.

He makes the best possible use of all the resources that he has at his hand not only for himself but also for Richard Parker - be it building a raft out of lifejackets and oars to remain at a safe distance from the flesh-loving animal, which is on the main lifeboat, OR alluding him into seasickness by rocking the boat and blowing the whistle simultaneously, which makes the beast relate the sound of a whistle to a threat, which consequently helps Pi apparently tame the untamed animal, OR journaling as a shield to protect his sanity amid the circumstances vigilant to shatter all of it into insanity, OR......

The point I want to bring home is that at any point in his long and arduous journey, he never ceases to put in the effort using his rational mind to make it to the other side.

Having said that, effort or rationality alone can't help you if you are stuck alone in the middle of an intimidating ocean for almost eight months with death staring at you every second. You need something more. Something irrational, which never lets you fall into the pit of despondency even when the rational mind has reached its limits.

"Above all, don't lose hope," is the Pi's constant message to himself when every attempt felt like knocking at the door of a house where nobody lives.

That flame of hope - which never yields to the storm of doubt and fear, which the darkness can never engulf, which keeps on guiding even when there is no sense of direction, which remains rooted even when everything seems to be falling apart - can eventually add so much power to the fingers that a mere knock makes the door fall open, and you are home.

The same message is conveyed in the "Prison Break" Netflix series when the mastermind Michael Scofield tries to console his doubting brother. "Preparation can only get you so far. After that, you have to take a few leaps of faith."

That delicate balance between reason and faith, that sweet spot where mind and heart coalesce into one, is what leads Man to his full glory. The Man who doesn't only know how to fight the circumstances but also knows how to hold onto faith when the circumstances keep pulling the ground off of his feet.

Man in his complete picture: a culmination of logic and love.