My version of Proust questionnaire

a) What is your idea of happiness?

Sleeping; Lying on the bed and reading a book with a plate of munchies by the bedside. Summer mornings and evenings, winter mornings too. Flowers in full blooms. Giggling and talking with friends. Writing letters or long mails. Digging into SBDP and ice cream. Watching movies. Looking at old photo albums. Rereading old letters or notes.

b) What is your greatest fear?
Losing my Dad. Becoming financially dependent on hubby or parents.

c) Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Ahilya Devi Holkar, who gave the Peshwas a good fight.

d) Which living person do you most admire?
Aamir Khan, Rajanikant and Sonia Gandhi. Aamir for his astute business sense and “selling” himself so well. Rajanikant for being comfortable in his own skin away from the arc lights. He looks the man he is – in 60s minus his wig. (I don't know his age. I am just guessing). Sonia Gandhi, well, she had everything against her starting from her foreign origins. But, she is firmly ensconced in her position.


e) What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Losing my cool very quickly
f) What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Self-obsessed and full of themselves. Those who yap away....like Duracell batteries.

g) What is your greatest extravagance?
Books. Photography.

h) What is your favourite journey?
Getting into someone else's shoes – Main wahana hoti to kya karti!
I like travelling by trains a lot. And, I simply swear by the Lal Dabba (ST) buses. They haven't ever let me down when I travel in them from Point A to Point B.

i) What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Honesty. No one is ever completely honest or true to oneself.

j) What do you dislike most about your appearance?
I have made peace with the fact that Fat is a shape – round one!

k) Which living persons do you most despise?
Those who spread terror in the name of religion.

l) Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Chayla! Chyamari! What the hell? Just go away.

m) What is your greatest regret?
That I have two left feet. I wish I could dance.

n) What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My family home and the flowers/trees in my mother's garden – mogra, jaswandi and ananta.

o) When and where were you happiest?
In my family home and in my mother's garden.

p) What is your present state of mind?
Impatient and sulking.

q) How would you like to die?
Maybe in my sleep. Haven't really thought. But, somewhere where there are flowers.

r) What is your favourite motto?
Give it some time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interview with Arefa Tehsin

Image
'There was nothing wrong in it,' Dada Bhai said, his head bent towards the cold, unyielding floor. 'Sir?' asked Tapan, who had followed him out, just as he had ushered him in personally. 'A boy and girl loved each other. There was nothing wrong in what Sanaz did. Love. That is what is halal for me.' Valmiki would not be contained, she knew, whenever the news reached him. He would rage within. Waste away in the cavity of his chest. She needed to bundle up all her nerve and pack it inside her. Convey to him soundlessly that he was fortunate to be loved for two years. Two years! An eternity for someone who had not got two whole hours of it in her life.  'A whiff of rosewater is enough...' On Makar Sankranti when the kites soar high, Sanaz' wings are brutally clipped. She is found dead in her room and what follows is a trail of questions hiding violence in their midst; of corrosive human behaviour. The ugliness and degenerate behaviour of the many a char
Read more

Book Review: Murder at the Mushaira

Image
Ghalib goes detecting  When presented with 'What if?', the 'scenario' conjures up numerous possibilities making it an interesting proposition to delve in. What if Mirza Ghalib was a detective? Isn't this enough to hook a reader? We bet so. Thus it is with great interest that we began reading Murder at the Mushaira , and we were not disappointed. Raza Mir, the author, toyed with the possibility of envisioning Ghalib as a detective for nearly 15 years. What we get in Murder at the Mushaira is not a racy whodunit, but more than a peek into the life and times of Ghalib, the Mughal court, the nobility and the sepoys who tried to overthrow the East India Company. The novel is set against the backdrop of First War of Independence and it begins at a point when the 'night is too silent' and ends with a gunshot with the horse rider thrown away from his mount. Who is the horse rider and what is his mission? At that time, Shahjahanabad is a city brewing with tension, in
Read more

Call of the Jungle

Image
  Every morning we wake up to doom and gloom -- the unseasonal rainfall, the floods, the drought, disappearing mangroves, urban forests being mowed down, the dip and the sudden rise in temperature and the illnesses that come with it. What is the world coming to? Can we put a stop to it? Perhaps; for the answer lies within us. In contrast, Iora’s world seems radiant – the trees are tall, the woods are deep, and so colourful with greens and blues, talking birds and animals. Why not? She lives in Twitterland, a hidden rainforest, with hardly any communication with the outside world. But you see the jungle is also doomed, as Iora discovers. The evil forces are dominant and her father’s life is in danger. She has to quickly track down the Five Angels and elusive Spirit of Jungle and get them to meet at Scar-faced lake, on a moonless night. For the first time in her 11 years, Iora steps out of Twitterland, but she is not alone. A dwarf Beetle and her friend-rival, Owlus keep her compan
Read more