Hundred and fifty days in sea, solo, non-stop and unassisted - students in Kochi thought a voyage in the ocean battling danger every single second, and loving it all along, can only happen in a Hollywood movie like ‘Life of Pi’, until they met Abhilash Tomy.
Tomy, the only Indian to circumnavigate the world, was addressing students during a special screening of Life of Pi arranged for school students in the city to mark the occasion of the World Oceans Day on Saturday. The event was organised by Social Access Communication Pvt Ltd, in association with the Kerala Federation of Animal Protection Organisations.
“Guys meet the real Pi,” quipped Lynn De Souza, founder, Social Access Communication, catching the students by surprise during the interval of the film. “After watching this film, you might get an idea of the journey I undertook,” said Tomy. “Only thing is that mine was worse, because it was real,” reminded Tomy.
Tomy had set sail out of Mumbai on 1 November 2012 in the sail boat INSV Mhadei and had to battle waves as big as 10 metres and wind speeds of more than 100 kmph. President Pranab Mukherjee had hailed Tomy’s achievement as “an extreme test of human endurance”.
In Kochi, he spoke about the need to protect and conserve oceans and its resources and encouraged students to love sea and sailing.
Echoing Gandhi’s message to differentiate between need and greed, he said that all that he set out to prove was “less is more”, which means that one can live with less greed and thereby help save the world. “If you don’t care for Earth,” said Tomy, “she will react badly.”
Students from schools across the city was invited for the screening. “Tomy is an icon of change. We want the students to connect the film’s story to Tomy’s story and start thinking about conserving sea and the resources it can offer,” said Lynn De Souza.