While standing behind the counter of a bakery, serving egg puffs and coffee, Shukoor P M is thinking of Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy — popularly known as Leo Tolstoy — who lived decades ago in the icy expanse of Russia.
A fierce literary critic well known in the Malayalam literary landscape, Shukoor is no stranger to obsessions that find home in his mind, spreading its roots, and tightly hold onto him, becoming thus a part of him, his days and nights, and eating into his time spent working, be it at the bakery or his literary engagements.
Usually, it’s closer to home. His books — Changampuzha: Jeevithavum Kalapavum, Sethu Ezhuthum Vaayanayum, Oru sangeerthanam pole Daivathinte Kalloppu, etc, — are a testament to this facet of his character.
However, this time, his inspiration is someone far away on the timeline. “It was quite recently that I discovered the man that was Tolstoy,” Shukoor says amid the din of the busy Painayil Bakery near the bus stand, over a cup of coffee.
He is also helping his staff manage the customers while he pours out all he has learnt and read on the literary great. “I started reading about him just ahead of 2020. Then I began revisiting all his works. And soon, it became anything anyone has written about Tolstoy,” he says.
It was quite an expensive obsession, too, he laughs. And one that required hard work. Shukoor, who studied only until pre-degree, brushed up and then went deep into studying English. “See, many of the books about him are only available in English. So I started reading and studying English by myself. Dictionaries are my constant companion now,” he laughs.
Not just Tolstoy, his research, naturally, extended to the Russian writer’s wife, Sophia Tolstoya, a figure who is now as dear to him as the writer. ‘”I think maybe more than Tolstoy himself,” he smiles.
Tolstoy is not just a writer for Shukoor. Not just someone he admired for his works — from the famous War and Peace to The Kreutzer Sonata and his final published work, Resurrection — but it was the man himself, his life, the divine conflict within him, that attracted Shukoor.
Born to nobility, Tolstoy was orphaned at a young age. “Then in his youth, he led a lavish life. Amassed considerable gambling debts. Then he joined the army, fought in the Crimean war, left military life behind when the deaths mounted, and began writing...” Shukoor soon begins describing Tolstoy’s life.
“When you read books about him, you can see that he suffered from what is today known as PTSD and panic attacks, thanks to the months fighting in a war.”
Then begins married life with a woman sixteen years his junior. “Thirteen pregnancies with eight surviving children. Imagine the struggle of Sophia. She alone managed the grand estate he inherited, she alone brought up the children, she alone worked for the upkeep of the estate...” Shukoor adds. Many have associated a not-so-nice image with Sophia, says Shukoor, but I don’t agree with it.
It’s how his fascination works, gaining a three-dimensional understanding of a great persona, going deep into that life, that mind that existed years ago, as much as he can. It led Shukoor to Yasnaya Polyana, the sprawling estate where Tolstoy was born and lived and to the Astapovo railway station, where he breathed his last. “It is now a museum, you can see his home, his writing desk, his deathbed,” says Shukoor, who visited Russia for two weeks as part of Tolstoy research. In a way, a pilgrimage.
Breathing in that air, seeing the rooms, his desk, his chairs, the bed, the walls.... It gives perspective, Shukoor adds.
“He used to walk those streets decades ago by himself. He was a great walker, you see. And to walk those lanes, even if it’s now modern and advanced... It was an experience,” Shukoor adds.
One might ask, how can a person who runs a small bakery in Muvattupuzha town afford a trip to Russia? “Well, that’s what one has to do for writing. You pool in money from years of your hardwork. My wife and children also felt that I should, that’s how much I was talking about him,” laughs Shukoor.
But two weeks, from June 12 to 24, are not enough. “I need to deduce much more, spend more time in his country, his abode that actually is a museum, walk those places, meet many more people... So I need to go again for an extended visit to actually write the book,” he says.
The obsession always results in books. Be it his Meeshayanam, a study on Meesa by S Hareesh, or now Tolstoy and his life.
“The transformation from a man with loose morals, who gifted his prospective bride diaries describing escapades on the eve of the marriage, to a man preaching a kind of asceticism. Who renounced his inheritance. Who almost became a fanatic believer... Curious, isn’t it, that life. That is why I went looking for him,” Shukoor asks.
When you read his books there, Shukoor recalls, that’s a different experience, and you can feel it around you, those words, those thoughts. It’s touched you deep,” Shukoor adds.
Shukkoor is fascinated by The Kreutzer Sonata, a book that was once banned by Russian authorities, where Tolstoy’s jealousy is apparent. “He was jealous of Sophia’s friendship with another man. And proceeds to write about a man who kills his wife. He then argues for sexual abstinence. All in response to his jealousy, all in this book. The fragility of a mind, and also cleverness, if I may so speak,” Shukoor laughs. Sophia also wrote two works in response to it, but they were never published in her lifetime.
The trip was not without its struggles. After money, the issue was, of course, the language. “I reached there. But I know nothing about Russian. I just walked and walked through Moscow, with the map on. Taking in the people, the buildings, visiting museums and book stores,” he smiles.
Many locals helped him reach his destinations, even if there was no common language between them. “They all stopped in the street and helped me navigate the map. Some even helped me book train tickets. Such a friendly lot, even the women, who were not scared or shy to speak to strange men,” he says. Shukoor was in awe; he wanted people, especially in Kerala, to be more like that. “Strong, fearless. Society too. Otherwise, it’s not possible,” he says.
His house, just a kilometre away from the bakery, is where most of the research happens. Two rooms on the upper story are just books, an eclectic collection, including fiction, religion to science and medicine. Maybe more than 1,000 books. The table is full of Tolstoy. “This is where I write, think and spend most of my free time. Amid the books and the writers,” he says, while thinking of how to arrange a proper Russia visit.
Yes, there is not much money in criticism, but Shukoor cannot help but write.