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  Lost girls in a lost world

Lost girls in a lost world

Published : Nov 25, 2015, 3:24 am IST
Updated : Nov 25, 2015, 3:24 am IST

I will do the bargaining,” said the Officer. It’s your advantage to tell me what you can that will make her attractive to the buyers.”

Island of Lost girl.jpg
 Island of Lost girl.jpg

I will do the bargaining,” said the Officer. It’s your advantage to tell me what you can that will make her attractive to the buyers.”

“Madam,” Youngest began. What can I say She’s my daughter...”After creating world bereft of women in Escape, Manjula Padmanabhan attempts to present a no-man’s world in The Island of Lost Girls. In this world, we encounter only one man i.e. the General. Other characters are either females or transgenders (‘transies’) — both struggling with gender issues.

It has been over two decades since eco-anarchists had detonated nuclear devices at the mouth of the Suez Canal. Their aim: collapsing the petroleum industry.

The explosions have drastic results as the Earth’s mantle is punctured and the Red Sea becomes poisonous. Nations have been replaced by the Whole World Union. The planet is split into four exclusive enclaves; enclaves with no trade relations, no communication, and no possibility of migration between them. Dominating the planet is The Zone — “a giant arena for a continuous, savage and immensely popular cycle of war games”. Entertainment, warfare, and commerce comprise their “holy trinity”.

Meiji’s homeland “The Forbidden country” has exterminated women. “Females are driven by biological imperatives that lead them to compete for breeding rights. In order to control breeding technology and to establish the collective ethic we had to eliminate them, says the General in Escape.

Only one girl of that land remains alive, that is, Meiji. In Escape, her “uncles” (Eldest, Middle and Youngest) raise her against all odds. She is raised as a boy. As she reaches her puberty, the natural growth of her body is restricted by various means. “The girl had a pair of her own (chests) but she had been taught to bind them tight and to keep them hidden.”

The only place where Meiji can remain safe is the Island. Youngest travelling though unfamiliar territory transports her to haven with the help a “transie” Aila. Girls arrive at the Island having faced horrific forms of torture and assault. Once here, these girls are brought back to normalcy by healing their physical as well as mental wounds. The place is exclusively for women, and offers them protection.

The Island is very different from the Forbidden country. This is a women-only society — often considered a feminist utopia by many critics. It allows the exploration of female independence and freedom from patriarchy. In the very first session of the new entrants of the Island, they are asked to remove all their clothes. The clothes that the mentors wear do not necessarily cover their breasts and private parts. At the Island, it is very normal to remain naked. In a way, the Island trains the girls to discard the social codes and constructs that have oppressed them so far.

However, Padmanabhan does not depict the Island as an ideal world. It is also kind of a prison, with set rules — “it both sustained and imprisoned all who dwelt within”. Memories of the girls are erased and the mentors can read the girls’ minds whenever they wish (Yes, the Island is technologically advanced.). The Island does not allow individual freedom. It trains one in a radical manner and has no use of something that will have its own way and would race away, “without commands, without control.”

The Island of Lost Girls has been called a dystopian (anti-utopia) novel. However, the state-of-affairs described by Padmanabhan in her book does not seem out of this world imagination.

For example, the status of women in the society as “vermin” is nothing new for readers, especially in a country like India. Women have always been the subjects of exploitation. The Island, in the novel, is formed in the first place to protect the “lost girls”. As one of the mentors of the Island explains: “Once it was clear that there would only ever be all-men’s teams, the whole shameful exploitation of women who live in the Zone — as booty, as trophies, as entertainment, whatever — became the established norm.” Nothing sounds fictional about the above statement, as this is and has been the norm in our world since time immemorial.

Also, the blowing up of the Suez Canal by eco-anarchists might remind the reader of the 2011 Langnau case, where three “eco-activists” were caught trying to bomb an IBM nanotechnology plant. We presently live in a world where “eco-terror” groups are thriving and they have supposedly have no qualms about killing to achieve their goals.

“A continuous erosion of every value that we call human” is what Padmanabhan tries to portray in her book. She takes the reader on a fast-forwarded journey to the future world of our own making, which leaves the latter gravely unsettled. It echoes real life concerns, whether they are related to gender or the climate.

The plot is fast-paced and very imaginative. The world that Padmanabhan has created in her novel will stir up your imagination. The description of the Island is vivid and makes one long to visit and experience it all by themselves. Also, Padmanabhan does not end The Island of Los Girls in a tone of finality. She leaves many questions answered, especially for Meiji’s part. One can look forward to a possible continuation of the story. Though The Island of Lost Girls is complete in itself, the reader would be prompted to read the prequel Escape.