Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Sociology Professor Kiranmayi Bhushi, Asian Games Village General by The Delhi Walla - February 6, 20200 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 have brought these Parisian parlour confessions into the Indian capital to explore people’s lives, thoughts, values and experiences. The series interview folks from diverse backgrounds. So today, say hello to Kiranmayi Bhushi. An associate professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, IGNOU, Ms Bhushi shares her book-lined apartment in south Delhi’s Asian Games Village with at least one stray cat. Author of the book Farm to Fingers: The Culture and Politics of Food in Contemporary India, she is well known for rustling out delicious dinners on a swift notice. In fact, she used to co-run an iconic restaurant called Gunpowder in Hauz Khas Village until some years back. She is in her 50s. Your favourite virtue or the principal aspect of your personality I don’t know whether it is virtue but an aspect of my personality is to use all my senses—as navigator tools—in search of beauty Your favourite qualities in a man Empathy Your favourite qualities in a woman Empathy Your chief characteristic Lust for life What you appreciate most in friends? Sincerity and warmth Your main fault Indulgence… the senses again come into play Your favourite occupation May be an architect Your idea of happiness Sunny blue skies Your idea of misery? No trees, no blue skies, no creatures of the wild… that to me is apocalyptic If not yourself, who would you be? A flamenco dancer or blues singer Where would you like to live? Not any one place but may be two three places—the Himalayas, Andalusia, San Francisco. But then again, this might change Your favourite colour and flower All shades of blue; Corn flower, Poppy, Lotus and Jasmine (I cannot settle for one) Your favourite bird The owl is magical, and is supposed to have extraordinary abilities… like it can turn its head 360 degrees, and has eyes that can hold you hypnotised for long. My fascination with this creature started with silent late night conversations between us—the owl outside my bedroom window and me inside Your favourite prose authors Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Milan Kundera, Haruki Murakami, Richard Wright, Jean-Paul Sartre, Hermann Hesse Your favourite poets Pablo Neruda, AK Ramanujan, TS Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Rumi, Kabir Your favourite heroes in fiction Hamlet, Atticus Finch, Huckleberry Finn, Oskar Matzerath, Sherlock Homes, Peter Pan, Bertie Wooster, Karna Your favourite heroines in fiction George (the boyish girl from Famous five) Scout Finch (if she can be counted as heroine), Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Eyre Your favourite composers Bach, Beethoven and Tyagaraja Your favourite painters Tyeb Mehta, Zarina Hashmi, Van Gogh, Monet, Dali, Hieronymus Bosch Your heroes/heroines in real life My father Ramadass, the very fashionable gardener-scholar-singer and, above all, a mean teaser of kids. And Parvati—the garden angel, animal lover and the caretaker of my farm in the Himalayas Who from history do you most dislike? Hitler Your heroines in world history Savitribai Phule, Marie Curie, Rosa Parks Your favourite food and drink Eggs; Coconut water Your favourite names Maya, Tara What do you hate the most? Duplicity and hypocrisy The military event you admire the most I don’t admire any military event, but if any at all, then it would be the Munda Rebellion—‘Ulgulan’ The reform you admire the most They would be constitutional reforms such as various acts and legislations for protective discrimination and land reforms A talent you’d like to be gifted with Singing How do you wish to die? To recline under a tree on a balmy day, a blue sky above, Rumi’s verse by my side and quietly breathe my last What is your present state of mind? Swinging between hope and despair Faults for which you have the most tolerance Depends from situation to situation and changes from person to person Your motto in life Don’t have one. But if I were to have one it would be that compassion and kindness is all it takes to make the world a better place Into the citizen’s heart 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. FacebookX Related Related posts: Julia Child in Delhi – Kiranmayi Bhushi Makes Sweet & Sour Pumpkin, Asian Games Village Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Samyak Misra, Hauz Khas Village Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Proust Scholar William C. Carter, On Marcel Proust’s 100th Death Anniversary Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Ranjana Sengupta, India International Centre Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Divya Babu, Sector 54, Gurgaon