05/30/2026

Proust Questionnaire 2026

my destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing

Every year, I answer the Proust Questionnaire. It began as a nineteenth-century parlor game, a kind of confession album filled out at parties, but it became famous because Marcel Proust answered it twice: once at thirteen, and again at twenty. The questions are simple, almost deceptively so. What is your idea of perfect happiness? What is your greatest fear? What do you most value in your friends? But returning to them each year feels like leaving a fossil record of the self. The questions stay mostly the same. The answers reveal what has changed.

Proust Questionnaire 2025
Proust Questionnaire 2024
Proust Questionnaire 2023

My 2026 answers

Aishwarya Khanduja, age 28, Saturday 5/30/26 @ 6:11pm, nyc

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
   in a consistent state of ‘maybe’

2. What is your greatest fear?
   not finding love again

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
   i be talkin toooooo much sometimes

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
   performative nonchalance, evil energy

5. Which living person do you most admire?
   kevin kelly, sigh swoon

6. What is your greatest extravagance?
   currently it’s filling up my record collection and certain rare magazines

7. What is your current state of mind?
   a little bit anxious because i’m in avoidance mode atm and super aware of it

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
   charisma

9. On what occasion do you lie?
   probably when i’m subconsciously insecure about something

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
    well i got it “fixed” 

11. Which living person do you most despise?
    *****

12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
    sincerity 

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
    authenticity 

14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
    currently it’s “in high fidelity” 

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
    moi

16. When and where were you happiest?
    i think i was pretty happy during our valentines rager this year

17. Which talent would you most like to have?
    relaxing into myself with ease

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
    getting better at Noticing then Pausing then deliberately Choosing for alignment. and shortening that feedback loop

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
    my life at the moment!

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
    grasshopper

21. Where would you most like to live?
    nyc4lifebby (well, at least this season of life). i can see myself living in different places during different seasons of life. 

22. What is your most treasured possession?
    my library + my notebooks

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
    living a life without courage and faith

24. What is your favorite occupation?
    my job

25. What is your most marked characteristic?
    my “indefatigable” energy (i am not sure if i like this or if it is healthy) 

26. What do you most value in your friends?
    loyalty, forgiveness, authenticity

27. Who are your favorite writers?
    i’m reading some charles eisenstein right now

28. Who is your hero of fiction?
    jasmeet dutta in late bloomer

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
    folks who created allegories (hofstadter, mcluhan, daumal, etc)

30. Who are your heroes in real life?
    my mom

31. What are your favorite names?
    ****, *****

32. What is it that you most dislike?
    creeps

33. What is your greatest regret?
    i try not to live like this

34. How would you like to die?
    quietly at home with my loved ones

35. What is your motto?
    maybe 

—

“My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing.” —Marcel Proust