Palash Ranjan Sen, aka Poltu, an eight-and-a-half-year-old boy, has his bags packed. He thought it was just another holiday in Siliguri, where he would play Ludo with his cousins. Except, an upside-down world waited to embrace him. Poltu was accompanied by his uncle, who played a key role in the new, unexplored world he was stepping into.
Going past playgrounds, trees with long, wide branches, and a two-century-old cemetery in a yellow taxi, he studied every curve of the city.
When he reached the station, casually chewing his red-coloured chocolate, the curtains fell. And boo! Poltu entered the world of the wandering, secretive, and ambitious ghosts. Time was slipping off hand, and Poltu was given the responsibility to find them a “home” before dawn. Through the words of Sudeshna Shome Ghosh and the illustrations by Pankaj Saikia, Poltu navigates the city, once familiar and now strange. Poltu journeys the night to a graveyard, open ground and the Howrah Bridge, and this is the premise of the book A Home To Haunt (HarperCollins Publishers India; Rs 199).
Excerpts of an interview with the author:
This is your first full-fledged children’s novel. What inspired you to write this book?
I just wanted to write. The story just sort of came to my head. So, I wanted to write a new story for children — something which would be a little funny and take them on an adventure. And something that would work across genres. It’s not just a scary story, but a story that brings in a lot of aspects of different themes.
Mostly, I wanted to tell an engaging story for children. And this idea was there in my head — what will happen if a boy suddenly meets a ghost one day, and what will happen after that, so I took off from there.
Did any character or scene in the book come from any of your personal memories and experiences? Or is it entirely fictional?
The little aspects of the city are from the time when I lived there when I was Poltu’s age. I lived in the capital city till I was about eight years old.
Additionally, the food. It is very important to Bengalis. We are obsessed with food. In the city of Calcutta, food is everywhere. Whether it is street food or everyday tea, people eating while on the way to office, to chaats and really exotic items, from British influence and Mughlai food, that bit is also from my life.
How are the themes of identity and belonging woven into the story through the lens of an eight-year-old?
Any good children’s book or adventure story should also take the reader on a journey of discovery. Sometimes it is a discovery of external things. Here, Poltu discovers aspects of the city. This is one external aspect. It could also be finding themselves. The feeling that they can achieve something which they had never thought they would. And so, while you are so connected with the protagonist, do you also go on that journey as a leader and see that maybe even you can do such things if you are put in them.
I feel the protagonist has to show a certain growth in the story for the book to be really meaningful. It might be aspects of your personality you didn’t know you had, and through this adventure, you realise that.
The idea was that kids who read the book are also taken on a journey, both literally and metaphorically. And, they also feel that this is a kid just like them.
What do you want readers to take away from the book?
Emotions. It’s not just one of them that the story evokes. At some point, it makes you a little scared, but at times, it makes you laugh out loud. It brings in aspects of being in a city, and the kind of people you meet and things you see around you. It’s also about being kind and empathetic and trying to understand that sometimes people have difficulties with life.
Yes, it is an entertaining story. But at the same time, there are these little things that nudge you to want to think.
While the story breaks away from many familiar ghost stereotypes, you’ve also retained details like ghosts lingering by trees or inhabiting dark, quiet corners. Was this a conscious choice to give young readers a sense of familiarity while reimagining the idea of ghosts?
Definitely. Because we do expect the ghosts to be in dark or isolated places. Since these are ghosts who have been displaced, I wanted to reason why they were coming to the city after being displaced. I also wanted, it’s a little ironic, but to humanise the ghosts a little bit in terms of how they too face problems. In the story, they are ghosts, but in any other way, it could be people who just come from anywhere else as refugees for various reasons. In the story, they are formally ghosts and not anything else.
Also, a bit of it comes from my reading. Ghost stories are very prevalent in Bengali children’s literature. There are stories in which the ghosts are not scary, and all kinds of things happen to them. It’s a very integral part. If you read some of those stories, you’ll find that supernatural things are happening in them. But, they are not always just supernatural; there is another aspect to it, another layer to it. That sort of subconsciously also worked for me because for us, ghosts would never be just someone who doesn’t have a head or whatever, as mentioned in the book.
In an age where children are introduced to screens and digital content very early, how does the book serve as an alternative form of engagement and imagination?
It does provide an alternate world where you are not guided by your mobile. Of course, that is the charm of imagination, which a lot of these things take away from us. When you read the book, you feel that there is a life outside the screen. I reiterate this habit of Poltu being very fond of reading throughout the book. He refers to many characters he is fond of. Poltu is a leader. He lives in his imagination and he comes from a house where reading is important. I’ve brought these details in without it being obvious.
What conversation or reflection do you hope this book sparks in readers?
To provide a few avenues for them [the readers] to talk. Often, when I am at a reading session, I ask the audience, mostly kids, to make up a ghost story. The kids just can’t stop talking about it because they love making up stories, as that triggers their imagination. It’s important for kids to be able to articulate.
That is one thing. And then kindness, showing empathy, and being brave, not in a very overt manner, but being brave in your everyday life.
Then of course there are aspects of urbanisation and what is happening to the world around us. Closing of parks and open grounds is a universal thing that they see around them. Sometimes they do want to talk about it, and it leaves them a little sad. I want this (book) to be a little break in their lives, and I think that it’s okay to chat with people.