Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Samyak Misra, Hauz Khas Village
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 writers Manika Dhama and Mayank Austen Soofi.
For the third instalment in the series Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire, investment analyst Samyak Misra made confessions to Manika Dhama during a morning stroll at Deer Park and brunch at Amici Café, Hauz Khas Village.
Your favorite virtue or the principal aspect of your personality
Fairness
Your favorite qualities in a man
Grit
Your favorite qualities in a woman
Kindness
Your chief characteristic
Eccentricity
What do you appreciate the most in your friends?
Openness
Your main fault
Analysis Paralysis
Your favorite occupation
Investment Analysis
Your idea of happiness
Śūnyatā
Your idea of misery or what would be your greatest misfortune?
Inaction
If not yourself, who would you be?
An anonymous soldier
Where would you like to live?
Berlin
Your favourite colour and flower
Sky-blue and White Marigolds
Your favorite bird
Sparrow
Your favorite prose authors
Charlie Munger
Your favorite poets
I don’t read poems
Your favorite heroes in fiction
Sherlock Holmes
Your favorite heroines in fiction
M
Your favorite composers
Eddie Vedder and Jim Morrison
Your favorite painters
No nuanced sense of art
Your heroes/heroines in real life
Charlie Munger
What characters in history do you most dislike?
Caligula
Your heroines in World history
Margaret Thatcher
Your favorite food and drink
Chicken salad with lots of lettuce and bell-peppers. Fizzy Lemonade.
Your favorite names
Hobbes, Garfield
What do you hate the most?
Duplicity
The military event you admire the most
Battle of Marathon
The reform you admire the most
Magna Carta
The natural talent you’d like to be gifted with
Quicker and more synapse
How do you wish to die?
Kissing the one I love
What is your present state of mind?
Happy
Faults for which you have the most tolerance
Stupidity
Your motto in life
To each his own
Diving deep within, like Marcel
1.
2.
3.
4.
(y)