Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Somak Ghoshal, Defence Colony Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - November 6, 2013November 8, 20135 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 early 2013, The Delhi Proustians started taking Les confidences de salon (Drawing room confessions) around the city to explore people’s lives, thoughts, values and experiences. The series involves interviews across Delhi and is conducted by writers Manika Dhama and Mayank Austen Soofi. For the twelfth installment of Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire, Somak Ghoshal made confessions to Mayank at his book-lined residence in Defence Colony. Mr Ghoshal has a passion for reading. Your favorite virtue or the principal aspect of your personality Refusal to lower my intellectual standards Your favorite qualities in a man Sense of humour, kindness, vulnerability Your favorite qualities in a woman Feisty, funny, intellectually engaging Your chief characteristic Appearing meek and mild What do you appreciate the most in your friends? Good taste Your main fault Indolence Your favorite occupation Reading, writing and conversation Your idea of happiness Curled up in bed with a book and my cat, with the Cole Porter Songbook playing on loop Your idea of misery or what would be your greatest misfortune? To lose my eyesight If not yourself, who would you be? My cat Where would you like to live? Berlin Your favourite colour and flower Blue and rose Your favorite bird I have a phobia of birds Your favorite prose authors Henry James, Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, W.G. Sebald, Evelyn Waugh, Franz Kafka, Jane Austen, Dorothy Parker, Virginia Woolf, Nancy Mitford, J.M. Coetzee Your favorite poets Elizabeth Bishop, W.H. Auden, Rainer Maria Rilke, C.P. Cavafy, T.S. Eliot, Chaucer and Shakespeare Your favorite heroes in fiction Hamlet; Hans Castorp in Mann’s Magic Mountain; Yuichi in Yukio Mishima’s Forbidden Colours, Strether in James’s Ambassadors; Bosie in Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis; Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis Your favorite heroines in fiction Chaucer’s Wife of Bath; Elizabeth Costello in Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello; Mrs Ramsay in To the Lighthouse Your favorite composers Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin Your favorite painters (artists) Picasso, Turner, Rothko, Bridget Riley, Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Bruce Nauman, Marina Abramovic, Dayanita Singh Your heroes/heroines in real life None What characters in history do you most dislike? All the fascists. Too many to name here Your heroines in World history None Your favorite food and drink Steak tartare. Chilled Prosecco Your favorite names Lysander and Gregor What do you hate the most? Lies The military event you admire the most None The reform you admire the most Many, but most recently, the reading down of Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code The natural talent you’d like to be gifted with More tolerance of stupid people How do you wish to die? In my sleep — and hopefully being discovered by a concerned human being before the maggots do What is your present state of mind? The usual: living elsewhere Faults for which you have the most tolerance Diffidence, if it is a fault at all Your motto in life Live by the tea-time Diving deep within, like Marcel 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. FacebookX Related Related posts: Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Indrajit Ghoshal, Cyberhub Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Samyak Misra, Hauz Khas Village Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Judith Oriol, Connaught Place Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Pradeep Chaturvedi, Gurgaon Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Proust Scholar William C. Carter, On Marcel Proust’s 100th Death Anniversary
Quite interesting 🙂 Like you, my greatest misery too would be losing my eyesight long live book lovers Well done Mayank 🙂
I get an impression that you are born in a place which is not in your “wish list”. Never-the-less, answers are in the domain of rare intellectuality. Hope you ascend to the next level.