The Zoo that was once the Pride of Pondicherry

IT all started at the Indian Coffee House on Nehru Street. Pondicherry where Yann Martel (author of a novel, Self and a story collection The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios) met an elderly man named Francis Adirubasamy who said: "I have a story that will make you believe in God... It starts right here in Pondicherry just a few years back and it ends, I am delighted to tell you in the very country you come from (Canada)".

Yann Martel's patience and his extensive research have all gone into the making of this novel. Written in one hundred chapters and gathered under three subheadings, the first is about Piscine Molitor Patel, known as Pissing Patel, known for short Pi, living with his parents in Pondicherry, where his father runs and owns the city's zoo. Pi is a practising Hindu, Muslim and Christian. His love for all religions makes him say, "Swami Jesus, will you go on the hajj this year?" When the religious heads suggest that he choose one, Pi retaliates thus: "Bapu Gandhi said, 'All religions are true! I just want to love God'." It is this faith in God that saves Pi when he is destined to be one among the five survivors in a solitary lifeboat on the wild pacific.

The zoo that was once the pride of Pondicherry can't go on forever. As everything on earth is bound to have a stop sometime or other, the Patels following the emergency in India, have to sell their zoo lock, stock, and barrel for a fresh start in Canada.