PROFESSIONAL BAKUVITE

He is popular. Almost everyone in Baku knows him. People greet him with respect on the streets, asking questions and taking photos with him. He responds with a friendly smile and is extremely attentive and incredibly charismatic. His tours are very popular among the tourists. He authored a series of lectures that do not fit into regular excursion routes, and hence are completely independent — a product of many years of scrupulous research filled with sincere love for Baku. If you ask him a question related to the architecture of a particular building and its owner, you will get an exhaustive answer followed by a humble apology a few minutes later: he will admit, albeit regretfully, that he cannot support the narrative with visual aids from his personal photo gallery.

Photos of family mansions, people, theatrical and public buildings revive the lifestyle of Baku in the late 19^th–early 20^th century. With deep regret in his voice, he laments bitterly that family mansions are no longer built in Baku. He still dreams of making documentaries, which could become a historical data bank for future generations. He loves the poems praising Baku. He also loves reading them with overtones of hoarseness in his voice, and it seems he can perform as well on stage, as his recitations of Mayakovsky and Yesenin sound no worse than those of Sergey Bezrukov. His tour portfolio also contains verses by Alexander Gorodnitsky and Javid Imamverdiyev. What about the songs that he so virtuously performs in the style of urban romance?! Please welcome Fuad Akhundov — our compatriot who passionately loves the culture of mental, architectural, historical and ethnic features of our old and beloved city of Baku. But it is not that evanescent sense of being in love akin to animate and selfish instinct that drives bumblebees to flowers. He admires the biographical past and present of Baku in a deeper and more stable sense. And it seems that these feelings will stay with him forever.

Custodian of memories

Fuad Akhundov is a man behind the popular TV series called 'Secrets of Baku', sightseeing tours and lectures about Baku and prominent Bakuvites, documentaries about legendary residents of our city, its historical pride. Twelve years ago, he moved to Canada. He has been living between Toronto and Baku ever since. But he still remains tied to his native city in spirit and style of a true Bakuvite.

"You are called a historian, research scientist and the best guide of the city. How would you describe yourself professionally?"

"I am certainly not a historian, let alone a scientist! In fact, there is nothing that can describe what I am doing as a scientific research as opposed to what real academicians do tackling that serious branch of science called history. I'm just a researcher, an amateur, if you wish."

"You have many sightseeing routes taking the tourists to the objects of architectural and biographical past and present of Baku. Do not you feel bored retelling them the same stories for so many years?"

"Indeed, sometimes I feel that certain themes no longer inspire me. Then I take a break to refresh my database with new photos, biographical details of individuals that have once lived in the house, stories of their relatives, documents and so on... This is a time consuming experience, of course."

He can skilfully interpret and turn any topic into a mini-performance. Anyone who has ever taken part in his city tours and lectures knows how artistic and fascinating his presentation of the material can be. Fuad can organically fill his narrative with plenty of poems glorifying Baku at different times, making occasional references to Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and many other renowned artists.

"You have become sort of a celebrity with many fans willing to take selfies with you. Do you feel comfortable?"

"It depends. I usually do not refuse those selfie requests."

"There are many tourist routes in your portfolio teeming with the biographies of the residents of Baku. What is your favourite one?"

"One of my favourites is the route called Baku of Ali and Nino. This is a phenomenal story, which deeply impressed me when I first read the unpublished copy back in 1997. I still find new interesting details in the book that I had not noticed before. This is not just a novel about the love between a Muslim boy and a Christian girl. It is much wider than that. This intriguingly romantic plot gradually turns into a story of the city itself, describing the history of its people, ethnic culture, national characteristics, and moral concepts. The author, or authors if we assume that the authorship belongs to Leo Nussimbaum and Yusif Vezir Chemenzeminli, has filled the narrative with details of tremendous emotional and cultural power. One just needs to notice them!"

"Then tell me why Ali lets Nino dance with Ilyas-bey at the graduation prom in Taghiyev's mansion. By the way, it was Ilyas-bey, not Ali, who pins with his dagger Nino’s handkerchief to the floor as they dance. Anyone born in Caucasus understands this double, metaphorical meaning of the ritual..."

"Do you remember what Ali tells us about the incident?"

"I'm not sure…"

"Let me quote him then: 'I forgot to mention that before the dance, Ilyas-bey and I exchanged our daggers. So, it was my dagger that pierced Nino's handkerchief. A little bit of caution that never hurts! As the old wise people would say, trust in God but tie your camel first.' How's that, huh? This means that Ali..."

"No, please do not to reveal the hidden meaning of the metaphor! Let's leave it to our readers. Let them re-read the novel or follow the plot along with you. Let's not deprive them of the joy of discovery! By the way, how did you get your typewritten copy in 1997?"

"It was an interesting journey that took fifty-five years before the novel ended up in Azerbaijan. It travelled from Vienna to London to New York to Istanbul to Munich and, finally, to Baku! I got my copy from the Humani brothers, who were the first who wished to film the novel. They have even managed to bring along a Dutch film crew to Azerbaijan. The failed to realise the project though, but after reading the novel, the events of the early 20^th century captured my mind forever."

"As a man who has spent many years researching the rich biography of Baku, what did you feel after reading it?"

"I heard the life of the city following Ali from his house through the Tsitsianishvili gate, Ashum’s mansion, walking past the Baryatinskaya Street, Filipposiants’s Café (now the Rolls-Royce Showroom) and ended up in front of Zeynal-agha Taghiyev’s mansion. That's the same house where Ali's friend Ilyas-bey lived and where they took part in the graduation prom."

"You mean the novel provides a detailed description of real-life streets, houses, and people living in Baku at that time?"

"I do. For example, you can find the club, the casino (now the Philharmonic Hall), the Saint Tamara Lyceum (now school no. 134), the house of Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev (The Azerbaijan History Museum), etc. I have tried to figure Ali's house. It was inside the Old City and belonged to the Khanlarov family. By the way, heirs of the Khanlarovs have been living there since. The novel mentions real people, for example, Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, Musa Naghiyev, the Asadullayev brothers... They have cameo appearances in the novel, but still are real, not fictional characters! And they really lived in Baku!"

"Fuad, you are as mysterious as the main character of the Iron Mask. Your fans create myths about you. For example, they claim that you used to work as a sleuth chasing criminals around the world..."

"That's not true! I was a translator, simple as that. I started as a schoolteacher. In fact, it is the experience with my pupils at school no. 189 that helped me become a tourist guide. I would use them in my experiments, if you will, to test the methods of material presentation in practice."

"I have noticed that you have a huge database of constantly growing data, including photographs. Do you plan to put this rich material up for publishing as a book?"

"I think about it, albeit occasionally. But I am not ready yet to talk on this subject in a broader sense."

"Your immersion into the past… Is this an escapism or mental games with reality?"

"Neither of the two. Fiddling with the past is my hobby, kind of my comfort zone, although I am far from idealising it."

"What are you thinking about when you are alone?"

"Sleeping! (laughing). Really, I love sleeping. It's one of the greatest blessings a man can have."

"What are your fears about?"

"I am a conservative and conformist. I do not like radical changes in my life, the routine cycle I am accustomed to."

"How would you describe harmonious relations with reality?"

"Perhaps, as an ability to accept the reality for what it is and to benefit from the reality."

"What are your dreams about?"

"I have diverse, yet very down-to-earth dreams actually. It is difficult to describe them all at once. For example, I would like to see ultramodern trams and bicycle lanes in Baku. I dream about canoeing in the Baku bay (laughing). By the way, it's the last thing that took me to Toronto."

"What would you wish for yourself?"

"I like what I have...

We did not go further on this topic, since he has already experienced many twists and turns in his life, which can be divided in two periods: before and after the departure to Canada. After all, it was not the main thing that we wanted to know about the person who has become a subject of poems, who is loved and respected for his loyalty, his lasting love for Baku and Bakuvites, his culture of eternal moral values, and his tireless promotion of what we call the values ​​of multiculturalism. He can surely be called the Custodian of Memories, because for almost twenty-five years, he has sown tirelessly in the minds and hearts of his compatriots the grains of truth about their ancestors, the truth that prevents them from turning into mankurts — unthinking slaves deprived memories of the past.

"What is the reason of your frequent trips to different countries? Do you have a penchant for changing locations?"

"No. I do this to meet fellow Bakuvites who live in different countries all over the world. I give them lectures about Baku and the people living here in the 19^th-20^th centuries. This form of communication allows us not to lose what we value so much: a common cultural and cultural heritage. We are all sick with the same disease — Bakuism. It is a severe 'disease', which cannot be cured neither in Vienna, nor in Toronto and Paris. It is incurable."

"How would you describe Fuad Akhundov as a researcher, custodian and man?"

"What a question! (laughing). I do not like to focus attention on my beloved personality."

Then he spoke about his heroes: houses, people, their affairs and destinies, providing the details about the development of particular areas of ​​human activity in Baku in the early twentieth century and proudly mentioning the technological innovations that help us obtain documentary evidence of the views of Baku from a bird's eye view... With overtones of admiration, he told us about the Azerbaijani women who were the subject of his research lecture 'The First Ladies of Old Baku', particularly mentioning those of them who contributed to the history of cultural life of Baku. Fuad Akhundov is a high-class professional, a man in love with his job, who was destined to become the Custodian of Memories...