He walks through the crowd of film buffs in Tagore Theatre, with a few books in hand. He approaches a few youths sitting on top of the sidewall, holding out one of the books. All of them say ‘no’, with a wave of their hands.
“You don’t need to read it, but at least touch it. Touching a book won’t harm you,” he tells them. Those words clinches the situation, with the guilty-faced youths almost snatching the books out of his hands. The man with the books is Shukkur Pedayangodu, reader, writer, bookseller, film buff and a favourite of Malayali writers as the organiser of a monthly literary get-together at his teashop in Irikkur in Kannur district.
The list of writers who have taken part in these tea shop literary get-togethers include M. Mukundan, Benyamin, N. Prabhakaran, P. F. Mathews, Shihabuddin Poythumkadavu, P.V. Shajikumar, and others.
“I am a voracious reader and I have this intense wish to meet the writer once I like a book. I thought my own teashop could be a platform for such meetings, where other readers could meet and discuss a particular work by a writer. Thus was started these monthly get-togethers, which has been running successfully for the past 15 years,” says Shukkur.
The writers who come to his ‘chaayakkada’ without taking any money and by bearing all their travel expenses, deserves all credit, he says.
Opportunity for women
“Literary criticism is dominated by men. So, when I visit colleges and other institutions to sell books, I look out for women readers and invite them to our monthly discussions. Though reluctant at first, many of them have come and spoken at the discussions. The participants are all regular readers. Readers who are not known personally to the writers are brutally honest with their views,” he says.
A regular at the IFFK for the past six years, Shukkur says that the festival provides him an opportunity to meet a lot of young readers. He can of course sell quite a few books and catch some movies.
“I have already watched the new film by Kim ki duk and some others. I catch mostly the evening shows, as I use the daytime to meet new people,” he says.
Among the books that he is selling are his own books. Shukkur has over the years self-published four books through his ‘Verandah books’. “Verandah is the name of my first novel. It seems the name has now become a bad omen, as I am still in the verandah of the literary world, waiting to step inside,” he says, a bit ruefully.
