Rediscovering the critters around us in Deepa Padmanaban’s ‘Invisible Housemates’

Deepa Padmanaban’s book, ‘Invisible Housemates’, is an ode to all the big and small critters that share spaces with us in our homes, our gardens and our cities. From the unwanted mosquitoes and cockroaches to the intelligent pigeons and monkeys, they all have their stories to tell and Padmanaban lends them a voice.

This book is widely researched and full of facts with accurate information and yet, it never reads like an encyclopaedia. The text is impeccably crafted, and I could not take my eyes off until the end. Each chapter is dedicated to a single species and reads like a feature-length standalone essay that holds the reader in rapt attention.

Stories from Greek to Hindu mythologies, from tribal folklore, scientific breakthroughs and Nobel Prize-winning research keep the chapters and book moving.

Every reader will find something of interest in this book. Teenagers will lap up the informative text, while those interested in the arts will revel in the lyrical prose. Even the most informed naturalist will be surprised to discover new things about the animals that are common all around us.

I was fascinated to know that bees like to play with colourful balls, crows can count, Mike Tyson is a pigeon fancier, geckos are popular pets, mosquitoes pollinate plants, there are more ants on Earth than stars in the known universe, and spiders are Instagram sensations. The book is filled with nuggets that are carefully woven together into a fresh narrative about species that we take for granted.

This book is a must-read for those with a phobia or even mild fear of the gecko, frog, or spider. It could be your first step away from fear and towards curiosity about that which has scared you forever. We fear the unknown, and this book helps us get to know our invisible housemates. The 13 chapters are about 13 carefully picked animals that we see every day but rarely stop to think about (and sometimes leave the room in fright). Many of them go beyond the realms of our homes and into the secret lives of these species, well beyond the confines of our concrete jungles.

While the choice of species is based on what is found commonly around our houses, the essays do justice to the species wherever they occur, including their adventures in space — of those who have had the chance.

The author has lent the same depth of effort and creative energies to the big and the small, from the human-like monkey to the gut-churning cockroach; Padmanaban does not discriminate. This is the first step towards acknowledging that spaces which humans occupy are actually multiverses of many species living together. Subtly but clearly, the author makes a case for greater empathy towards some of the most overlooked species on our ark.

The book will change how we look at common animals all around us. It will make you stop and look at a spider the next time you come across one, and you will see that the spider can turn its head and look back at you. The ant that we think is so industrious might just be employing slave labour to get the job done.

Padmanaban tells us that our houses are full of critters that can surprise us to no end; we just have to be curious.

— The reviewer is director of the India Programme of Snow Leopard Trust