Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Mayank Austen Soofi, Fresc Co Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - June 28, 2013December 6, 20136 The Proustian self-introspection. [By The Delhi Proustians] The Proust Questionnaire represents a form of interview that owes its structure to answers given by French novelist Marcel Proust, the author of In Search of Lost Time, at two birthday parties that he attended at ages 13 and 20 in the late 19th century. In 2013, The Delhi Proustians takes Les confidences de salon (Drawing room confessions) around the city to explore people’s lives, thoughts, values and experiences. This series would involve interviews across Delhi and will be conducted by Manika Dhama and Mayank Austen Soofi. Dhama is an investment consultant with a real estate firm. She lives in NOIDA, works in Gurgaon and reads/writes in between. Her poem featured in ‘Delhi’s Bandaged Moments’ and she runs the blog Framed by Wanderlust. Soofi is a writer on Delhi. He runs the website The Delhi Walla and has published four guidebooks on the city. His fifth book is Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District. He lives in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. For the first instalment in the series Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire, Mayank Austen Soofi made confessions to Manika Dhama while having dinner in Fresc Co, a Mediterranean restaurant in Janpath. Your favorite virtue or the principal aspect of your personality Ability to absorb books that demand immersed attention Your favorite qualities in a man His frailty Your favorite qualities in a woman Her aggressiveness Your chief characteristic Complicated relationship with truth What do you appreciate the most in your friends? Sophisticated taste in books Your main fault Incapable of raising my voice Your favourite occupation Walking with my camera Your idea of happiness ‘Boating’ in Nainital lake Your idea of misery or what would be your greatest misfortune? A married life with a traditional Indian woman If not yourself, who would you be? A war-time edition of Sense and Sensibility Where would you like to live? Paris Your favourite colour and flower Yellow and Amaltas Your favourite bird I don’t know about birds Your favourite prose authors Arundhati Roy, Marcel Proust, Jane Austen, Alex Ross Your favorite poets Cavafy, Akhmatova, Rilke, Homer Your favorite heroes in fiction Biswambhar Roy in the movie Jalsaghar, Price Andrei Bolkonsky, George Wickham Your favorite heroines in fiction Proust’s Mme Verdurin and Françoise, Arundhati Roy’s Ammu, the Lucknow courtesan Umrao Jan Ada, Violet Stoneham in the movie 36 Chowringhee Lane. Also, Shakespeare’s Cleopatra Your favorite composers Chopin, Vinteuil and Bach Your favorite painters Van Gogh, Vermeer, Monet Your heroes/heroines in real life Golda Meir, Gustave Flaubert, Ahmad Shah Massoud What characters in history do you most dislike? Titus Your heroines in World history None Your favorite food and drink Cucumber Sandwich and Darjeeling Tea Your favorite names Durga, David (when pronounced as Daveed), Andre What do you hate the most? Last names of upper caste Hindus The military event you admire the most The Long March in China The reform you admire the most [No response] The natural talent you’d like to be gifted with Ability to whistle How do you wish to die? Like Virginia Woolf What is your present state of mind? Slight nervousness that the interviewer is getting bored Faults for which you have the most tolerance Lies Your motto in life To look for poetry in a seemingly ordinary world Next: Manika Dhama responds to Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire, conducted by Mayank Austen Soofi. Diving deep within, like Marcel 1. 2. 3. FacebookX Related Related posts: Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Manika Dhama, Barakhamba Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Samyak Misra, Hauz Khas Village Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Gajra, Sector 34, Noida Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Puja Verma, Gurgaon Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Naman Govil, The Book Shop
Favorite Women in World History – None Which Reform you admire the Most – Silence Wow. Did not expect that from a guy pretending to be so sophisticated in tastes. Sorry Mr. Soofi, I am hugely disappointed. Please forward these responses to the people grinding their lives to promote equitability and inclusivity in the society.
HATE is a negative emotion. Why purposefully hate anything or anyone e.g. last name of people? Who knows, may be some of them hate themselves, or their parents or their names or their lives, etc 🙂
Hi Mayank, Your accounts of simple things have a grounding that I’ve in very few people’s works, does your The Delhi Proustians club still goes about to different location and read an except from Marcel Proust’s on its meets. can anyone else attend any such meet? Thankyou! and Good wishes for the future posts!