Set in the hill town of Didoli in the 1970s, Shashank Gupta takes us through myriad emotions in his book Visitors to the House. This book is reminiscent of Ruskin Bond’s books that take you through a picturesque location and the simplicity of life in those places. Visitors to the House, however, is rooted in the characters and their relationships. The locale adds to the charm of this interconnected series of five stories, but the souls of this book are the different protagonists.

An escape from the doldrums of urban life

The book starts with a six-year-old Aum, who lives with his grandmother, Ammu, in the hill town of Didoli. On a Thursday, when rain was pouring upon them, Ammu gave Aum a companion for life to celebrate the young child’s birthday – a ferocious dog, Vurf. As Aum grows a year older with each passing year, Vurf grows seven times faster. As Aum and Vurf grow together, they learn lessons about love, life, and relationships. From compassion to care, from bravery to gratefulness, the two brothers learn some important lessons and stand by each other through thick and thin.

Aum’s family consists of his brother Vurf, his grandmother Ammu, his father Rajan, his stepmother Mini-Mum, a darling little sister, Mira, and an adopted sister Theresa. Each story in Visitors to the House is told by one of the family members and every story is a touching and heartwarming one. Book 1: Vurf, as told by Aum, is the strongest of the lot. It clearly showcases how unconditional love and the correct guidance can make a child into a compassionate and honest individual. It also gives an insight into how pets are very much like another member of the family, rather than just an animal you are taking care of.

Each story sets the context of the next one. As we go through Aum’s story, his half-sister Mira’s story starts taking root. She sees family ghosts or imagines she sees one. Then we have Kadu, a golden-haired, green-eyed child who is rescued by Mini-Mum from a band of gypsies, Ehet a child star, and Baby, Aum’s son who has the ability to “smell” the future.

Mira’s story is about learning to fight your own battles while you stand by the right thing. Kadu is about how even a stranger can become family and how being different can be a cause of problems. Baby is about Aum’s autistic son who is able to sense the future and illnesses, but finds it difficult to be a part of the normal world. Each story teaches you a valuable lesson and it does that with so much simplicity and raw honesty.

About the author

Shashank Gupta is an escape artist. He left his PhD in horticulture to become a farmer. He then abandoned six years of full-time farming for advertising. And after almost three decades as Creative Director, he is still looking for freedom in books, hoping that someday he can afford to just sit and write in a small house in the hills farthest from Delhi, where he lives. It’s for this wish perhaps that all his novels, including Visitors to the House, are set in the fictional town of Didoli. More recently, he left the rut of social media for real solitude.

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