Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri
The parlour confession.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
The Proust Questionnaire represents a confessional game that owes its structure to answers given by celebrated French writer Marcel Proust in two parties that he attended at ages 13 and 20 in the late 19th century.
The Delhi Walla brings these Parisian parlour confessions into the Indian capital to explore people’s lives, thoughts, values and experiences. The series interviews folks from diverse backgrounds. Here’s the new French ambassador.
Say hello to Emmanuel Lenain, 49. An enthusiast of gelatin silver print photography, he arrived in Delhi in September 2019.
Your favorite virtue or the principal aspect of your personality
humor
Your favorite qualities in a man
humor
Your favorite qualities in a woman
humor
Your chief characteristic
I am always lucky
What do you appreciate the most in your friends?
Their cellar
Your main fault
Poor jokes
Your favorite occupation
No occupation
Your idea of happiness
Lost in the library of Babel
Your idea of misery or what would be your greatest misfortune?
To be on a diet
If not yourself, who would you be?
A chef
Where would you like to live?
In a wineyard
Your favourite colour and flower
Red, peonies
Your favorite bird
The albatros
Your favorite prose authors
Stendhal, Tolstoi and of course Proust
Your favorite poets
Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Celan
Your favorite hero in fiction
Cyrano de Bergerac
Your favorite heroine in fiction
Marie Slim Browning
Your favorite composers
Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin
Your favorite painters
Yan Peiming, my friend
Your heroes/heroines in real life
François Vatel
What characters in history do you most dislike?
Fanatics
Your hero in World history
Gandhi
Your favorite food and drink
Biryani sustained by a Pommard
Your favorite name
Zoé which is the name that I gave to first and only turtle.
What do you hate the most?
Routine
The military event you admire the most
The battle of Marengo which gave its name to a dish
The reform you admire the most
La nouvelle cuisine
The natural talent you’d like to be gifted with
Flying
How do you wish to die?
Never
What is your present state of mind?
Amazed by India
Faults for which you have the most tolerance
Mine
Your motto in life
You shall not die ignorant
Into the citizen’s heart
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