Acclaim for Yann Martel's Life of Pi(93)

"Let us put them aside for now."

"It might be hard. I never tried pulling them out and carrying them."

"You're a funny man, Mr. Patel. Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Pi Patel: "Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Mr. Chiba: "Ha! Ha! Ha! <translation>It wasn't that funny."

Mr. Okamoto: "Just keep laughing.</translation> Ha! Ha! Ha!"



Mr. Chiba: "Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Mr. Okamoto: "Now about the tiger, we're not sure about it either."

"What do you mean?"

"We have difficulty believing it."

"It's an incredible story."

"Precisely."

"I don't know how I survived."

"Clearly it was a strain."

"I'll have another cookie."

"There are none left."

"What's in that bag?"

"Nothing."

"Can I see?"

Mr. Chiba: <translation>"There goes our lunch."</translation> Mr. Okamoto: "Getting back to the tiger..."

Pi Patel: "Terrible business. Delicious sandwiches."

Mr. Okamoto: "Yes, they look good."

Mr. Chiba: <translation>"I'm hungry."</translation>

"Not a trace of it has been found. That's a bit hard to believe, isn't it? There are no tigers in the Americas. If there were a wild tiger out there, don't you think the police would have heard about it by now?"

"I should tell you about the black panther that escaped from the Zurich Zoo in the middle of winter."

"Mr. Patel, a tiger is an incredibly dangerous wild animal. How could you survive in a lifeboat with one? It's—"



"What you don't realize is that we are a strange and forbidding species to wild animals.

We fill them with fear. They avoid us as much as possible. It took centuries to still the fear in some pliable animals—domestication it's called—but most cannot get over their fear, and I doubt they ever will. When wild animals fight us, it is out of sheer desperation.

They fight when they feel they have no other way out. It's a very last resort."

"In a lifeboat? Come on, Mr. Patel, it's just too hard to believe!"

"Hard to believe? What do you know about hard to believe? You want hard to believe?

I'll give you hard to believe. It's a closely held secret among Indian zookeepers that in 1971 Bara the polar bear escaped from the Calcutta Zoo. She was never heard from again, not by police or hunters or poachers or anyone else. We suspect she's living freely on the banks of the Hugli River. Beware if you go to Calcutta, my good sirs: if you have sushi on the breath you may pay a high price! If you took the city of Tokyo and turned it upside down and shook it, you'd be amazed at all the animals that would fall out: badgers, wolves, boa constrictors, Komodo dragons, crocodiles, ostriches, baboons, capybaras, wild boars, leopards, manatees, ruminants in untold numbers. There is no doubt in my mind that feral giraffes and feral hippos have been living in Tokyo for generations without being seen by a soul. You should compare one day the things that stick to the soles of your shoes as you walk down the street with what you see lying at the bottom of the cages in the Tokyo Zoo—then look up! And you expect to find a tiger in a Mexican jungle! It's laughable, just plain laughable. Ha! Ha! Ha!"

"There may very well be feral giraffes and feral hippos living in Tokyo and a polar bear living freely in Calcutta. We just don't believe there was a tiger living in your lifeboat."

"The arrogance of big-city folk! You grant your metropolises all the animals of Eden, but you deny my hamlet the merest Bengal tiger!"

"Mr. Patel, please calm down."

"If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn't love hard to believe?"

"Mr. Patel—"

"Don't you bully me with your politeness! Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?"

"We're just being reasonable."

"So am I! I applied my reason at every moment. Reason is excellent for getting food, clothing and shelter. Reason is the very best tool kit. Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater."



"Calm down, Mr. Patel, calm down."

Mr. Chiba: <translation>"The bathwater? Why is he talking about bathwater?"</translation>

"How can I be calm? You should have seen Richard Parker!"

"Yes, yes."

"Huge. Teeth like this! Claws like scimitars!"

Mr. Chiba: <translation>"What are scimitars?"

Mr. Okamoto: "Chiba-san,, instead of asking stupid vocabulary questions, why don't you make yourself useful? This boy is a tough nut to crack. Do something!"</translation> Mr. Chiba: "Look! A chocolate bar!"

Pi Patel: "Wonderful!"

[Long silence]

Mr. Okamoto: <translation>"Like he hasn't already stolen our whole lunch. Soon he'll be demanding tempura."</translation>

[Long silence]