3.5/52 s Anjana BasuAuthor 24 books10

Didoli is one of those hill towns that evokes Ruskin Bond with its streams and hills that rush from steep to slope. Shekhar Gupta tells a series of linked stories about a house and the people who live in it set in a fictional town, beginning with the story of Aum, his dog Vurf and his grandmother Amma. That story sets the context for the others that follow, each complete in itself and each linked to a different character. There is the story of Mira, Aum’s half sister who sees or imagines she sees family ghosts then there is Kadu, a golden haired green eyed Austrian doll of a child who is rescued by Mini-Mum from a band of gypsies and who grows up to be gaped at by everyone who sees her; Ehet the child star and finally Baby.

Of the stories the one about the relationship between the boy, his dog and his grandmother is probably the strongest. Mira has its own clutch of messages relating to the behaviour of teenage girls in schools, attitudes towards the differently-abled and the truths that come from imaginings. Kadu is about outsiders in the physical and spiritual sense and how being different can prove to be a problem in many ways. Baby deals again with the differently-abled, Aum's son, a child who can sense the future and illnesses but who lacks the ability to be part of the normal world inhabiting his own spiritual space.

Behind it all is the landscape and the wisdom of hills and age old trees. There are leopards that stalk the forests but the big cats too have their own wisdom appearing at times to be creatures out of mythology. Didoli puts everything into context with its unhurried pace of life as compared to the urban sprawl of Delhi. It Gupta’s book it is a space for the ageing and the young, for those who value their own individuality un city folks. Those with careers or a hunger for worldly knowledge have to leave Aum, though even he is, according to his sister Mira, a glorified gardener. Family ties change everything even though not everything in life is happy and learnings are hard.

The stories are those of simple yet complex life lessons and learnings, what the difference between being correct and being right is and how one should always be true to oneself. Illustrations add to their appeal, though one might think the book a trifle bulky for young adults. However, while being a series, the five three stories can stand on their own Kartik Chauhan44 4

If our hearts are divided into chambers, perhaps they are meant for things and people to haunt and inhabit, often alternately, sometimes simultaneously.

The heart of ‘Visitors to the House,’ as well as the characters that inhabit it, beats in such profound music, that once you start reading the book, you cannot stop reading it. Or rather, listening to it. So effortlessly, it tunes into the peace and silence of a small hill-town, where the sun is brighter and rains polite. This is a truly spectacular, meditative book that tackles complex emotions, chiefly the one that is most complex of all: love.

Spanning 30 years, this is the unforgettable story of a family in the fictional hill-town of Didoli. There are many people and events and animals that populate its chambers. But its most uncompromising charm is in its ability to tell the story of a family tied to each other with deep love.

So often we read how rare that feeling is. To love, and be loved. And which is perhaps why growing older makes us more cautious of the world. We choose our heads over our hearts. But rarer than love is our ability to recognise how often we let go of it, simply because we are scared. In matters of the heart, “choice” is not real. Hearts decide their own fate, their own pain.

This is an endlessly gorgeous book that engages with the questions about the world. Why we suffer loss, how we suffer it, and what it means to be in this world. Ultimately (in my reading) to suggest that we are here to learn how to love. And if we can feel and mirror that light for someone else, that’s all that is to measure a good life. That and the many many mistakes that we should go on making in the matters of the heart.

But also, as an addendum to love, as the author himself told me recently, the goal in life is also to be d. Love is a foolish thing, and we must fall for it. But knowing how to may be the melody to the lyricism of love.

A rich, vivid and oceanic book set in the mountains. Read it.
Aruna Kumar Gadepalli2,464 107

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