How does the storyteller first find out about pit?

In "Life of Pi", the storyteller, Yann Martel, first learns about the real story of Pi Patel during his travels in India. While in the city of Pondicherry, he coincidentally meets Francis Adirubasamy, a former philosophy student who shares an amazing story about a young Indian man named Pi who miraculously survived a shipwreck and spent 227 days adrift in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.