Even if you've never actually watched Life of Pi (or read the book it's based on), there's a very high chance that one pervading, iconic image will pop up in your head as soon as I mention its title. Released in late 2012, the film is based off
Yann Martel's 2001
of the same name, and although the
won four Academy Awards (including a Best Director gong for director Ang Lee), you probably only think of one thing.
A young South Asian boy stranded at sea, standing forlorn on a small
; a tiger mere inches from him.
Of course, if you've seen the film, you'll know that things aren't exactly as they seem, but all the same, the image above stands as an apt summary of one of the more interesting stories seen so far in the 21st century. As we all know, though, truth can be stranger than fiction, and Life of Pi was surprisingly reenacted in a peculiar example of life imitating art.
For more, let's take a journey to the Indian Ocean, where back in May, a Polish sailor named Zbigniew Reket embarked on a journey from the Comoros Islands, which are located off the Southeastern coast of Africa. He set sail for South Africa, but somewhere along the line, his engine failed, and he was stranded, left completely at the mercy of Poseidon.
At least he had his cat with him to keep him company.
Yeah, it's not quite the same as having a tiger, but Samira helped Reket on his journey and subsequent survival, where Reket ran out of instant noodles to prepare, and survived on little more that instant noodles and fish he caught from the sea.
The vessel was a former lifeboat, which he modified upon buying it in 2014, kitting it out with a engine, mast and a rudder.
Once his equipment shorted out, Reket found himself unable to contact other vessels or steer, drifting through the Indian Ocean.
"We drifted towards the Somali coast, then towards the Maldives, and then Indonesia again. Several times I could see land but I could never steer towards it. I spotted several ships but the battery on my radio was dead."
Like his literary counterpart, Reket found himself in a decidedly precarious place, but earlier this month, he was discovered. Extremely malnourished but otherwise no worse for wear, Reket was found off the coast of the French island named Réunion, which is actually in the exact opposite direction which Reket intended to travel.
As such, there's a fair deal of skepticism about the 54-year-old's doomed voyage, but what's for sure is that this Polish sailor spent quite a long time stranded; clearly, for a longer time than he'd planned. Of course, in Life of Pi, similar doubts emerge about the legitimacy of the main character's story, but without spoiling anything, let's hope that this story doesn't take a similarly dark turn.
