Kids these days are looking for something new to read and explore. Reading the same old comics and fairytale stories can be such a bore for those little readers who are vying for something unique, fun and adventurous. That’s when we came across The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong by Shweta Taneja. And this book sure explores the extra ordinary!
Unravel the Mystery!!!
Sometimes you go out looking for ghosts and sometimes the ghosts come looking for you…
When Kartik Godse’s mother informs him that they are to move from Mumbai to the small hill station of Kurseong, he thinks his death is near. And the cause will be boredom. That is until he reaches there. On his very first day in this sleepy town, he is accosted by a frightened man and attacked by two strangers. This marks the beginning of his journey down an unexpected vortex of intruders, ghosts, hauntings and rumours.
Just like the author herself, Kartik likes to pry into the peculiar and odd, especially since he is armed with good instincts, a sharp scientific mind and two unlikely companions – gentle Tashi and the firebrand Opus. Kartik takes on the role of a ghost hunter and private eye to unravel a web of mystery, deceit and supernatural events! At the centre of it all stands the old and dilapidated mansion called the Iyer Bungalow which cannot get more eerie. The story navigates the minds of the young reader through the twisted bylanes of Kurseong with the three brave ghost hunters who are , hot on the heels of villains both real and ghostly!!
What we liked:
- The story is extremely spell binding and the suspense is upheld till the very last page
- The emotions and fears potrayed by Kartik and his gang as they take each villain and fight them off.
- The use of simple language makes it easier for the young readers to connect with the characters.
Recently the author Shweta Taneja was interviewed about her debut book The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong. Here’s what she had to say about her book:
What is The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong all about?
It’s about three curious children, all around 12 years old, and what they do when they are faced with the mystery of an angry ghost and a town full of superstitious adults. It’s a Bollywood style mixâ€_x0090_up with hilarious characters and situations, a pinch ofthe paranormal and crazy things all as Indians have seen or faced.
What inspired you to write the book?
I consciously sat down to want to write a good old mystery for children, you know the kind that we as kids used to curl up in a corner all evening and read? Somehow I hadn’t seen much of that stuff in Indian bookstores, though I might be wrong. So I wrote down a synopsis, thinking I wanted to make it into a graphic novel (at that time, I still believed I could write a complete novel). But the deal fell through and much to my annoyance, brave Kartik, obnoxious Opus and even timid Tashi kept on hitting the walls of my head, demanding to be let out! Well, so I sat down every morning for six months, switched off my internet and phone and wrote their story. My chief inspirations for this book were the Famous Five, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.
Why Kurseong?
I fell in love with drinking tea (and I write this while drinking tea) when I had visited Kurseong for a tea trip many years ago during my job as a journalist. Since that time, the town has left a deep impression on my heart, so I wanted to go back to the beautiful town in fiction. It’s not so well known to travellers who generally miss its charms for its bigger and older sister, Darjeeling, which might be another reason why. If you have read the book, you will also notice that Kartik’s mother is a tea taster and loves her cup of tea at any time of the day. That is my alternate profession if I ever quit writing stories!
What is it with you and ghosts? Each of your novel or short stories has something paranormal.
You are right! I cannot write stories with just humans. It needs to have other species, whether dead or alive involved. Through their stories, I think I want to explore the underlying tension, prejudice and behaviour that a society doles out to ‘others’. I have seen so much of it in our lives be it behaviour towards a different caste, community, language, skin colour or features. Just in my case the others are not of another caste or country, but of another dimension, be it the paranormal or supernatural world. Ghost Hunters explores many opinions about ghosts. Only Kartik, who approaches it with an open, curious mind, can solve the mystery. My next, The Skull Rosary, which is a graphic novel on Shiva, explores this idea of otherness in characters who stand outside the societal logics. My new novel, which is meant for adults, has a tantric heroine based in Delhi who solves crime mysteries and is alongside fighting for the justice of the supernatural others living in the city (without any rights). Yes, I feel that’s why I am so interested in intersecting ‘us’ with the ‘others’.
Janani S Koushik
Kanishka Pariani
