I came across this interesting exercise quite accidentally and thought that it would be a lark to answer the questions that Proust had answered when he was twenty years old.
Your favorite virtue: Loyalty.
Your favorite qualities in a man: Maturity, which I define as being courageous but acting with concern and compassion.
Your favorite qualities in a woman: The same as for a man.
Your Chief Characteristic: Being practical.
What you appreciate the most in your friends: Connectedness.
Your main fault: Impatience.
Your favourite occupation: Sleeping.
Your idea of happiness: Solitude.
Your idea of misery: Not receiving newspapers on public holidays.
If not yourself, who would you be?: Gautama The Buddha.
Where would you like to live?: Exactly where I live now.
Your favourite colour and flower: Blue. Hibiscus.
Your favorite prose authors: Viktor Frankl, Leon Uris, P G Wodehouse, Joseph Heller.
Your favorite poets: I am not a poetry person.
Your favorite heroes in fiction: Yossarian, Jack Reacher, Ari Ben Canaan.
Your favorite heroines in fiction: Scarlet O’Hara, Lisbeth Salander.
Your favorite painters and composers: Painters – My late wife, K K Hebbar, Ara. Composers – Ilaya Raja, A.R. Rahman, O.P. Nayyar, R.D. Burman.
Your heroes in real life: My nephews Jai, Craig, Deepak and Simon; and my son Ranjan.
Your favorite heroines in real life: My nieces Neila, Sowmya and Nitila, my daughter in law Manjiree. And truth be told, all the women who married Rajgopaul men and Vandana who married Jai.
What characters in history do you most dislike: Md. Ali Jinnah, Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi.
Your heroines in World history: Gayatri Devi, Mata Hari, Lakshmi Sahgal.
Your favorite food and drink: Tamil Brahmin cuisine and Tea brewed with freshly grated ginger.
Your favorite names: My given name and all the nick names I have been saddled with.
What I hate the most: Mosquitoes.
World history characters I hate the most: Hitler, All the Muslim invaders of India.
The military event I admire the most: Operations Bangladesh and Kargil.
The reform I admire the most: The economic ones let loose by Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.
The natural talent I’d like to be gifted with: Singing.
How I wish to die: Without pain / suffering and quickly.
What is your present state of mind?: Peaceful.
For what fault have you most toleration?: Being human.
Your favorite motto: Wisdom By Hindsight.
I found the exercise quite interesting. Why don’t you give it a shot too?
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