A native of Abkhazia, writer Anton Tsulukia told the WAC web information portal about his new book of oriental fairy tales and shared his plans for the future.
The young writer Anton Tsulukia was born in Russia, but by surname and blood he is an Abkhazian: his father is from Tkuarchal. At the time, Anton graduated from the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, and then moved to St. Petersburg, where he has been living for ten years.
He dreamt of writing a book since childhood. Even then, he composed and told friends and relatives different stories that were born so easily, and of which there were so many that he did not even write them down. Today's 34-year-old young man, Anton is fond of oriental literature, science, religion and cultures of different countries.
"In general, the range of my interests is unlimited," the writer notes with a smile.
The last few years he devoted almost entirely to fairy tales.
"The most important fairy tale is my whole life, I have been writing it for 34 years, and if we talk about the book, I started it about three years ago, without counting the last year," the author shares.
I sold books and read, read, read ...
They say that if you really want something, and if there is a will of fate for that, then it will definitely come true. The same happened with Anton.
"I moved to St. Petersburg and got a job in a bookstore - despite the fact that before that, although I liked to compose something, I did not like to read. There I discovered the world of books. I began to read and buy books all the time. Sometimes the money left after going to the grocery store was set aside so that I could buy a book later. Since I had wanted to write a book for a long time, I suddenly realized that now I had an excellent opportunity to fulfill it," the writer said, and further explained what kind of opportunity it was.
The fact is that now every day, in the process of reading, he also studied the structure of books, paid attention to how many pages the author devotes to describing this or another event, what part he devotes to dialogues, and so on.
"Since I was attracted by the old classics of different nations, I began to look for rare books. One day I came across the "Book of Faithful and Unfaithful Wives" by Inayat-Allah Kamboh. These are old Indian tales in Persian adaptation. As soon as I read the first lines, I literally forgot this vain world. I suddenly realized that this is what I want to create! I was drawn by the structure of the book, namely, that inside the main tale there are many other tales related to each other. It's really very exciting!" the writer tells with inspiration.
Before that, he had learned to write by "copying great novels," but it was not so interesting. This book defined the genre of his own work. He also read "A Thousand and One Nights", similar in concept to the book mentioned.
"Thanks to these two books, in the process of reading them, my fairy tales were born," concludes Anton.
As for the profession of a bookseller, its role in the life of a young man is not over yet.
Basaray
The writer took a creative pseudonym of Basaray. This word, like the names of many heroes of his fairy tales, "was invented by itself."
"I sat and listened to a certain sage in Hindi. I do not know this language, but I like the way it sounds. Suddenly the sage says some interesting word, which "stucked to my tongue." I began to invent different versions of this word, and in the end, Basaray was born. I immediately checked on the Internet if this word had any meaning. It turned out that there is such a Ukrainian surname. Still, I liked the word, and I decided to leave it that way for now," says Anton-Basaray.
Fairy tales from a fairy tale
"The Tale of Arijana and his wife Haripudra, or the Tales of the Ancient East, which no one has ever heard of" - this is the name of the new book by Anton Tsulukia. The main work on it went on for two years. The book consists of the main tale, which, in turn, contains five more fairy tales, each of which has its own stories.
In the fairy tale that frames all the stories, there is a hero-bookseller. In general, the fairy tale is about how Prince Arijan fell in love with a girl named Haripudra, and what happened next. They married. Haripudra was distinguished by wisdom and intelligence. Then one day she saw a book at a merchant, which he did not want to sell. Then she seemed to go mad, fell into despair. Seeing his wife's tears, Arijan tried to buy the book himself, but to no avail. Then Arijan decided to steal the book. Hurrying with the cherished thing to his beloved, he found his wife sleeping, opened the book and began to read it.
This is where five inner tales begin. One tells how a simple person named Ashman exposes the lies of his sultan and relieves people of his oppression. The other is also about the Sultan. He, not finding himself a wife in his country, goes under the guise of a poor man to look for her in another land. The third tale is about two lovers who went cold to each other. On the advice of a wise old woman, they go to the temples of Khajuraho to regain their love interest. In the next tale, it is about the Sultan who saw the portrait of a beautiful girl and went in search of a stranger. She will subject the lover to a difficult test. The last in a series of tales is about a giant who lives in grief, exploits people and smokes a hookah. A certain sultan and his vizier go in search of poisonous tobacco to kill the giant.
This is followed by the continuation of the main tale. After reading the book, Arijan suddenly loses his sight. Haripudra wakes up, sees her husband in such grief and goes in search of a remedy that will help bring back his vision.
"I have uploaded my book to an excellent electronic portal. The book has already been offered to the largest stores. Now Chitay-Gorod and Bukvoed periodically buy the required number of copies. Accordingly, you can order the book there, or on the electronic portal Ridero, as well as on Amazon and Ozon," says Anton.
"Tales from a Small Room"
In total, Anton wrote several books, but he considers only "Tales of Arijan and his wife Haripudra" successful.
"My first book, "Tales from a Small Room", is a tryout. In one of its parts, quite crude, there are oriental tales, from which I created the tale of Arijana and Haripudra. In the other, there are stories that have nothing to do with the east. There is more mysticism, detective, surrealism. It is for sale on Ridero, but I want to remove it. I see no point in the fact that a person pays money for a half-finished book. Perhaps a hundred years later it will be a kind of interesting rarity to study," jokes Anton.
Abkhazia and Indian movies
The young writer was in Abkhazia only once, but, as he himself believes, this was enough to fall in love with the country.
"A guy from Abkhazia once wrote to me on the Vkontakte social network. He wrote that one man is looking for his family, and I fit the description. When we clarified all the details with him, it turned out that this man is my father. The fact is that my father and I parted ways when I was 13-14 years old, he left Russia for Abkhazia, and I did not know about it. We phoned him, talked, and in the summer of the same year, I came to him in Tkuarchal. Sometime later it turned out that I still have many relatives, however, this is not surprising for the Caucasus," says Anton.
Last year, thanks to the website of the World Abaza Congress, about which he found out "by accident", Anton Tsulukia found his sister, and through her, his brother.
"All this time, before meeting with my father, I was minding my business, grew up, studied and did not even think about Abkhazia. I was only thinking about setting my life. Now you can see how interesting everything turned out, like in Indian movies," says the young man.
A case in an Abkhazian minibus
Anton hopes that over time he will come to his historical homeland more often in order to get to know his relatives better.
"In Abkhazia, I was pleasantly surprised. I talked with kind people and got extremely positive emotions from the trip. I especially remember one incident. I got into the minibus, an elderly woman came in with me. We passed several stops, and a young man entered the minibus. We
drove a few more stops and the guy, getting out, paid for himself and for the elderly woman, and told her not to worry about it. It's great that there are such people, and I think there are more than just a few," says Anton Tsulukia.
Mysterious Tsulukia manuscript and Abkhazian tales
Speaking about his creative plans, Anton notes that he wants to translate "Tales of Arijan and his wife Haripudra, or Tales of the Ancient East, which no one has ever heard of" into English. He also plans to create a book about creative people, mainly about artists from all over the world.
"It will be an inspiring book. I have written to some artists from Abkhazia, but have not received an answer yet. I really want the world to know about the wonderful Abkhazian artists. This is exactly what I am doing now. In general, the process of collecting material is easy for me. I search for something online, watch documentaries, or, while reading an interesting book, I find what I need in it. I look around and notice every little thing. This is how I work. It should be noted that this work is a joy for me, this is exactly what gives me pleasure," says Anton.
He is also currently creating a "mysterious manuscript."
Fascinated by mysticism, secrets, rare books, he once came across the so-called mysterious Voynich manuscript. Wilfrid Voynich is the husband of the famous English writer and composer Ethel Lillian Voynich. Who was Wilfrid himself by profession? Right! Book dealer! In reality, the authorship of the mysterious document has not been established, but it is named after Voynich. This "Voynich manuscript" is kept at Yale University in the USA and has occupied the minds of not only scientists, but also many people from all over the world for many years. The texts of the "manuscript" are written in an encrypted or unknown language. Almost every page of the book is decorated with drawings.
"This is the most mysterious manuscript to this day, created around the beginning of the 15th century. Until now, no one knows who created it, in what language it is written and what the drawings in it mean. I was very inspired by this and wanted to create my own. I bought a suitable notebook, paint, calligraphy pens and let my imagination take flight. Of course, I cannot tell what I wrote in it and what all the drawings mean. Let us leave some room for mystery. I will only say that I started doing the first sketches in Turkey, in Alania, on the Mediterranean coast, and finished in St. Petersburg when the quarantine began. I have been creating it for three years," said Anton Tsulukia.
At the end of the conversation, the author of the manuscript and oriental tales, Anton Tsulukia, admitted that he might one day write Abkhazian tales.
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