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Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri

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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Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri

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Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri

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Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri

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Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri

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Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri

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