India, June 8 -- Heat and dust. Autos and buses. The evening rush is surging along Central Delhi's Mathura Road. A sluggish stream of noise and impatience beneath the grainy gold of a dying sun. Abruptly in this setting appears an otherworldly figure in sherwani and astrakhan cap, wading through the exhaust and commotion in fluent grace. Poet Mateen Amrohi is returning home from a book launch. He graciously agrees to join our Proust Questionnaire series, in which citizens are nudged to make "Parisian parlour confessions", all to explore our distinct experiences.

The principal aspect of your personality.

I write prose. I write poetry.

Where would you like to live?

Two places. Delhi, where I already live, and Amroha in UP, where I was b...