Santanu Paul

To pick a few that were really fun to read and also had a mind-bending effect, I would pick Robert Pirsig's Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, Robert Axelrod's brilliant take on the Evolution of Cooperation, and Richard Dawkins's evolutionary masterpiece The Blind Watchmaker.

 I am a bit of a sucker for Hollywood. Amadeus, Dead Poets Society and Goodfellas are the kind of movies I can watch over and over again. I am also very excited by the new wave of Indian directors who have made offbeat films such as Ship of Theseus, The Lunchbox and Kahaani.

 I grew up playing a lot of tennis and watching a lot of soccer. Tennis is about individual excellence, tenacity and touch. On the other hand, soccer is a team sport and the one true world religion that unites faithfuls in every possible country.

 There is something about Japanese cuisine that hits the right spot. And then I have a soft corner for regional cuisines. I remember visiting Moscow and being invited to a mind-blowing Georgian restaurant. I am in awe of rare Bengali recipes my mother can put together. You cannot not do better than an appam in Kochi or a filter coffee in Chennai or a fafda jalebi in Ahmedabad.

 In India, it is a terrific experience to be in Kolkata in October for Durga Puja and in Chennai during the December music season. In our twenties, my wife and I spent a lot of years in New York City, our gold standard for what a great city should be, so we like going back there when we can. In Europe, Barcelona is a traveller's dream.