The Man Who Lost India: Meghna Pant's Dystopian Tale Tests Boundaries

The Man Who Lost India is set in a dystopian future (the year 2032) where China takes over India and all towns barring one have fallen. The story then goes on to tell the tale of a family and its members, revealing alongside, a stunning secret as to why this particular town has survived wave after wave of brutal Chinese onslaught.

A dystopian never-been-done-before tale set in – and between – China and India, The Man Who Lost India is a powerful portrayal of love, strife and family in the wake of the 21st century’s biggest war. Incantatory and atmospheric, this is Meghna Pant’s most ambitious novel yet, full of beauty, bloodshed and undeniable feminist power.

Here's an excerpt from Meghna Pant's The Man Who Lost India

Manu enters The Black Taj. Blinded by its absolute darkness, he gropes the brick walls till his eyes find light in the flicker of a lamp. His shadow is thrown against the corner of a wall from where another shadow emerges and merges with his.

“I am leaving,” he shouts at the shadow. “I came here to tell you … I want to tell you that it is over between us.”

The shadow becomes a bright red cloth, shimmering with a million mirrors. Each mirror reflects his unmet desire. Stay strong, he tells himself. Turn around and leave. Then her face emerges, a face for which the light burns, for which mirrors are built; a face cast in the soft glow of beauty. Ida: Goddess of the Earth, born of dewdrops and stardust, her opaline skin of milk and honey, gleaming golden: for morning had slipped into her mother’s womb at the moment of her birth.

He manages to ask, “How was dinner? Is your to-be- husband madly in love with you?”

How does it matter, she says simply.

“Do what you want. I am leaving,” Manu shouts. “Even if I say I love you?” she whispers.

Manu startles for a second. Can it be true? Has she not given up on their love? But she’s marrying another man.

“How can you love two men at the same time?” he asks. “The heart is not a box that gets filled up with love. It

expands and it expands, and it keeps loving more.”

Her face is contorted with the innocence of a child and the lust of a temptress. It is the only thing about her that reveals the truth.

“What nonsense!” he says.

“If you grow up in darkness, you only love darkness because that’s all you can see. So, one day, when you see the light you’re drawn to it. It’s magnificent! But seeing the light doesn’t mean that you’ll never turn back to look at the darkness. You love both light and darkness … and you can’t love one without loving the other. You’re helpless.”

“Are you drunk?” he snaps.

I don’t love him, she says simply, and smiles at him like he’s an impish child.

He doesn’t listen. “How much did you drink?”

“I had to. I had to drink to survive that horrendous dinner,” she says.

A tear rolls down her cheek. Manu walks towards her.

“No,” she says. “This is my own doing.”

“Talk to me about how you’re feeling,” he tells her. “Right now, I don’t want to talk.”

She moves towards him, like liquid flowing between silk sheets. She runs her hand along her face, over her breasts and her navel. She reaches that mound which Manu so often visits: rubs it and pokes it. Then she moans.

Manu’s thoughts slow down and stop, like a train pulling into a station.

Her fingers, wet and shining, rise up again and dip into her blouse. They unbutton the blouse, revealing two full moons of breasts. They tug at her cherry nipples.

The twisted coils in Manu’s stomach unfurl and an ember burns; the fire within him reignited.

She steps out of her sari and stands before him, naked like a goddess.

Lust gathers in his throat like a lake.

He remembers the taste of her skin, like molten honey, her vagina like crushed grapes, and her lips like a glass of red wine being poured in the sun.

The dam bursts. He falls upon her.

***

Today she is doing what she’s never done before. Today it’s all teeth and nails and deep angry growls, as if they are two clashing swords. Her fingers coil around him like a noose and her tongue forks in his mouth, sending his moans into silence. He pines for her soft eyelashes, those moist lips, their entwined limbs and a gentle caress. He pines for all this but today he lets her be. Pleasure is not the only thing that leaves memory.

***

For even as she prods and explores Manu, Ida sees lights torch the corner of her mind. Her dark spaces are invaded by such ecstasy that she can’t reach out to them anymore. The parts of her body that he touches come alive, moist and glistening as if made of dewdrops. Everything within her that is shattered, the niggling bits and wobbles of her life that she can never piece together, become whole when she is beside him. All her stupidity, her mistakes gather in one place, and blanketed by his embrace, they are forgotten.

This stupid stupid love. She sees it; it’s still there, standing quietly in the corner, whispering to her. She turns the other way and prays for it to go away.

Extracted with permission from Meghna Pant's The Man Who Lost India; published by