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Looking for Pi in Pondicherry

  • If you went looking for the zoo in Pondicherry after reading Life of Pi, be prepared for disappointment. There are animals, but not the kind you imagine.
    1/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    If you went looking for the zoo in Pondicherry after reading Life of Pi, be prepared for disappointment. There are animals, but not the kind you imagine.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • When an empty ticket booth greets you on entry, expectations fall as quickly as they rise.
    2/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    When an empty ticket booth greets you on entry, expectations fall as quickly as they rise.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • But the trees are old and grand, if unlabelled for the most part. These giant buttress roots begged to be pictured.
    3/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    But the trees are old and grand, if unlabelled for the most part. These giant buttress roots begged to be pictured.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • A long list of rules and regulations running into two columns, and nobody to pay heed.
    4/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    A long list of rules and regulations running into two columns, and nobody to pay heed.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • The garden is a green lung in a rapidly modernizing city.
    5/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    The garden is a green lung in a rapidly modernizing city.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • Signs are rusted and there's no one in the park to heed them.
    6/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    Signs are rusted and there's no one in the park to heed them.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • Watch your step, or you might crush those busy legs in the leaf litter.
    7/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    Watch your step, or you might crush those busy legs in the leaf litter.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • And if you stop to look at the flowers, you won't be disappointed.
    8/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    And if you stop to look at the flowers, you won't be disappointed.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • Finally, we catch sight of the rails! So, there was a train for sure!
    9/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    Finally, we catch sight of the rails! So, there was a train for sure!
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • And a station signboard to tell me whare I was.
    10/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    And a station signboard to tell me whare I was.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • And other, disused, signs call for attention.
    11/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    And other, disused, signs call for attention.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • And yet another, nearly in ruins.
    12/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    And yet another, nearly in ruins.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • And finally, here we see the train we've come to look for.
    13/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    And finally, here we see the train we've come to look for.
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
  • The train still makes its rounds, so hop on and take a ride!
    14/14

    Travel Great East Coast Road Drive Pondicherry Botanical Garden

    The train still makes its rounds, so hop on and take a ride!
    Azhar Mohamed Ali
If you went looking for the zoo in Pondicherry after reading Life of Pi, be prepared for disappointment. There are animals, but not the kind you imagine.
When an empty ticket booth greets you on entry, expectations fall as quickly as they rise.
But the trees are old and grand, if unlabelled for the most part. These giant buttress roots begged to be pictured.
A long list of rules and regulations running into two columns, and nobody to pay heed.
The garden is a green lung in a rapidly modernizing city.
Signs are rusted and there's no one in the park to heed them.
Watch your step, or you might crush those busy legs in the leaf litter.
And if you stop to look at the flowers, you won't be disappointed.
Finally, we catch sight of the rails! So, there was a train for sure!
And a station signboard to tell me whare I was.
And other, disused, signs call for attention.
And yet another, nearly in ruins.
And finally, here we see the train we've come to look for.
The train still makes its rounds, so hop on and take a ride!

“Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud...”

- Yann Martel, Life of Pi

When life imitates the art that imitated it, memories run off the rails. In Pondicherry, The Great East Coast Road Drive went in search of the zoo in Life of Pi.

Piscine Molitor Patel, or Pi as we've now come to know him, love him, and relate to his extraordinary journey with the Royal Bengal Tiger Richard Parker in the open Pacific Ocean, is the protagonist of Canadian author Martel's Booker Prize-winning novel. He constructs with vivid clarity the zoological garden in Pondicherry that Pi's father ran, and where he met the tiger. In the book, Pi and a raft of animals are the only survivors of a shipwreck that drowns his family, a scene that Ang Lee reimagined along another dimension in the Oscar-winning film adaptation. Lee populated the zoo with realistic CGI zebras, tapirs, leopards and, of course, Richard Parker. If you have watched the movie, the most enduring image of the zoo is of the toy train that runs between two stations. So inspiring it was that we went looking for the garden in Pondicherry.

Imagine our surprise when we found that one such exists. It's not a zoo, but a botanical garden planted by the French administrators of Pondicherry and dates back a good couple of centuries. There was a railway track, and we finally saw the train. But it was nothing like we had expected.

Follow the Great East Coast Road Drive

Photos: AZHAR MOHAMED ALI
Text: BIJOY VENUGOPAL