While I was walking down the memory lane yesterday, I remembered meeting RR in Chennai and his gift of Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. We were best friends in school and I had lost touch with him during engineering. One day there was an email and he said he was in Chennai. We agreed to meet. It was either a Saturday or a Sunday. I used to teach Math for CAT students during the weekends. I had finished a class and met RR at Landmark (book shop) in a mall. It probably was Spencer’s but not fully sure. He gifted me this book and it was a great surprise. He used to give greeting cards in the past with some inspiring and soulful words written beautifully. Expecting him to have written something, I opened the book to find a quote among other wishes.

“Obstacles are things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.” ~ Henry Ford

Now that I think of it, Dostoyevsky was an author who I wanted to read but hadn’t read. My first introduction to Dostoyevsky happened probably during high school/PU days. Through a book named Oru Sangeerthanam Pole (Like a Psalm) by Perumbadavam. I think I read the book from Viveknagar library. The author called Dostoyevsky as Hridayathinu mel dhaivathinte kayyoppulla aal (A man who has God’s signature on his heart).

I used to visit Viveknagar library often. It was a small government library which was close to the bus stand. It used to open in the morning, close in the afternoon and open in the evening around 5. Many times, I used to wait for the libarian to come. There were few other people also waiting, usually to read newspaper or magazines. Since it was a govt library, there were books in all languages - many in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, etc. I had read most of the English books that were available. Moreover our school had a bigger library with lot more choices. There was a small section of Malayalam books - probably around 20-30 books. I’d read a few of them in the library. Kanam and Parappurath are two authors I remember. I had heard of Dostoyevsky for the first time from one of the books I read during this time.

Oru Sangeerthanam Pole is about Dostoyevsky’s relationship with Anna, his stenographer. It describes him as a person anyone would hate. He was a drunkard, gambler, lonely and depressed. He has a deadline to write a novel but had not started even a single page. I was thinking that someone like him may not make it anywhere in India. The society, in general is very intolerant of people who drink.

The connection between Russia and Kerala itself is something to think about. How did Communism make its way to Kerala? How is there a Communist party which is Leninist. Saw a movie couple of years back called Comrade In America (CIA) where the protagonist has a chat with Che Guvera, Marx and Lenin during a difficult time. Anyway, the Russia connection is something to read about for a later time.

I feel like I need to read Oru Sangeerthanam Pole and Crime and Punishment again. Last year I read a book named 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson. Peterson refers to Dostoyevsky multiple times in his book. Of course, he talks more about Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago but he was a big fan of Dostoyevsky and urges us to read his books.

Photo of the quote