Proust questionnaire with a citizen.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Camden Street’s Devitts pub is buzzy with evening loungers. Suddenly, the low chattering turns into a murmur and, one by one, all the heads turn towards the main door. Ireland’s former Prime Minister has just entered. Then in his late 30s, Leo Varadkar made history by becoming the country’s first prime minister of Indian origin. He was also the country’s first openly gay person to attain this position. And the youngest to hold the high office at the time.

The friendly waitress promptly serves the beer the former PM asks for, simultaneously handing him a bill of eight euros. Ensconced in a corner table, Leo Varadkar agrees to become a part of our Proust Questionnaire series, in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences. His responses form the concluding bookend to our week of Dublin dispatches. This reporter has been in Ireland’s capital attending Bloomsday, the annual festival that celebrates Ulysses, James Joyce’s great Dublin novel. Leo Varadkar casually remarks that he possesses the book’s first UK edition. He is in fact looking forward to the September release of his own book—Speaking My Mind.

What is your present state of mind?
I’m enjoying life after politics—I left the parliament in November this year. I’ve rediscovered personal and intellectual freedom. Didn’t realise how much I was missing it.

The principal aspect of your personality.
I’m an optimist who worries a lot.

Your favourite qualities in a person.
Energy, humour, kindness.

What do you appreciate the most in your friends?
Having the courage to tell me things that I need to hear.

Your main fault.
I’m probably too blunt. In Ireland, people can perceive that as being too insensitive.

Your favourite occupation.
Being a fitness enthusiast, I like running, weightlifting, swimming. I also love music.

Your idea of happiness.
Being free from desire.

Your idea of misery.
Being trapped and not being able to find a way out… that could be physical as well as spiritual.

Where would you like to live?
I love living in Dublin, my hometown. The other place will have to be London. It is truly an international city, and home to friends and family.

Your favourite prose authors.
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is great fun. Read Midnight’s Children while a medical student spending a summer in Mumbai. Have loved it ever since. Yuval Noah Hariri for Sapiens. Margaret Atwood for Handmaid’s Tale—had the pleasure of dining with her in Dublin when I was Taoiseach (Prime Minister). It now feels that she predicted a possible future. I’m also fond of Maya Angelou. Like reading Martin Wolf of FT (Financial Times) as well.

Your favourite heroes in fiction.
The character of Lieutenant John J. Dunbar, played by Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves.

Your favourite heroines in fiction.
Portia in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. She is smart, courageous, and is willing to defy social norms.

What characters in history do you most dislike?
Dermot MacMurrough— he invited the Normans to Ireland.

Your favourite food.
Chicken legs, and I love mint chocolate ice-cream. I also love pistachio kulfi.

Your favourite names.
Matthew, that is also my partner ‘s name. But I always liked this name, even before meeting him. And I like the name Luke.

The reform you admire the most.
Introduction of pensions, which happened in different ways in different countries, giving people security in their vulnerable years.

How do you wish to die?
Hopefully quickly, but not soon… after a full life, hopefully avoiding a prolonged decline or illness.

Faults for which you have the most tolerance.
I have a lot of tolerance for people who make mistakes. Because that’s the way one learns.

Your motto in life
I would like to believe in reincarnation, but I think you live only once. So, you make the most of it, in what you do for other people, and for yourself.