Clinging to life against overwhelming odds

To be alone and adrift on a 24ft fibre-glass boat with an out-of-order engine in the Pacific ocean for about 13 months, by all accounts, is a superhuman feat. Jose Salvador Alvarenga, a man originally from El Salvador, who had been living in Mexico for 15 years, has accomplished this feat by default. By default, because he survived the ordeal to tell this incredible story when he was found floating nearby the Marshall Islands and rescued. Adrift helplessly across 8,000 miles of treacherous sea, he did not know if he would ever return to land inhabited by his kinds. Only in literature and films do such characters make their appearances. The first and most celebrated one is, of course, Ulysses -the Greek hero; the other one is Coleridge's the ancient mariner and the third one is a down-to-earth Pi as depicted in the Oscar winning film 'Life of Pi'.

Jose himself could not believe he was alive to be among people. This he expressed in his first reaction immediately after his rescue. He claims he survived on raw fish, bird flesh and turtle blood -the latter as his drink. He also drank rain water if available and his urine. But he could not remember much of his past life except that he left Mexico for El Salvador with a companion aged between 15-18 and that the boy died after four weeks. He could also remember he had a wife and a 10-year old daughter in El Salvador, to whom he wanted to return.  Apparently he suffered memory loss. Doctors believe he was supposed to regain his memory gradually with recovery of his health and strength.

On his boat in the tossing and rolling sea, he knew the ultimate loneliness man has ever experienced. Thanks to his digestive system, it did not revolt against raw fish, meat and blood. The castaways in films and literature all had an involuntary epic journey. Based on a fantasy adventure novel of the same title by Yann Martel, the film, 'Life of Pi' presents a boy from Pondicherry, India named Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel in all his trial and tribulation but at least he has the companion of a royal Bengal tiger called Richard Parker. For about a year, Jose had no such luck. His survival is a most amazing evidence of human endurance and capacity. He can thank his star for the fact that the boat did not capsize in storms. That he was in his two tattered shorts at the last moment gives some proof of how he fought against elements -sun, cold and rain.

It is not easy to maintain sanity when all hopes to cling to a tenuous life vanish. Yes, he had a knife and thought of suicide. But he had confidence enough that God would protect him. So, he prayed when there was nothing to rely upon. His loneliness was overpowering, no doubt; but his belief in himself and his creator was even stronger. The urge to hold on to life triumphed over the temptation to end it in the face of overwhelming odds. Soaring human spirit has thus made man special among all creations. In his limitless capacity, man thus gets going when the going gets the toughest and thus excels beyond expectation.