Pi explains that his unusual first name comes from a swimming pool, which is ironic because his parents avoided water. A close family friend, Francis Adirubasamy—whom Pi calls Mamaji—was once the champion competitive swimmer of South India and kept the lean, aquatic look of a lifelong athlete. Pi’s brother Ravi teases that Mamaji’s thick chest and skinny legs came from a doctor swinging him at birth to make him “stop breathing water,” a story Pi accepts despite Ravi’s habit of mocking others.

Mamaji tries to teach Pi’s parents and Ravi to swim, but they never progress beyond shallow wading and awkward arm motions. When Pi reaches “swimming age” (seven, according to Mamaji), Mamaji takes him to the beach and presents the sea as a gift, alarming Pi’s mother, who claims Mamaji nearly drowned him. Pi, however, commits to learning and practices movements on the sand and then in the water while Mamaji patiently supports and instructs him.

Once Pi improves, Mamaji shifts lessons from the beach to the Aurobindo Ashram swimming pool. Pi and Mamaji attend three mornings a week with strict regularity, and the training is gruelling but rewarding as Pi’s strokes become easier and faster, turning effort into a near-hypnotic pleasure. Pi also returns to the sea on his own, drawn back by the waves beyond formal practice.

As Pi grows, he gives Mamaji a birthday “gift” of two full lengths of credible butterfly, finishing exhausted. Pi’s father remains reluctant to swim but loves talking about swimming, treating pool lore as an escape from the daily realities of managing a zoo.

Mamaji’s best stories come from two years he spent studying in Paris in the early 1930s, where he fixates on the city’s pools and competitions rather than famous landmarks. He describes various Paris pools—some filthy and overcrowded, some cleaner and brighter—but reserves his deepest awe for the Piscine Molitor, which he portrays as the pinnacle of aquatic civilization. With Mamaji revering that pool and Pi’s father dreaming about it, Pi is ultimately named “Piscine Molitor Patel,” arriving as a welcome addition to the family three years after Ravi.