Shobna Gulati: What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?

The question

What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

In recent times, when I was looking after my mum. She would take me on journeys in her mind and I’d travel with her wherever she went. I felt happy that I had the opportunity to have that time despite her illness.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 October 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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Joyce Carol Oates Novelist, short story writer and essayist

On two dates: 23 January 1961 and 13 March 2009 (my two weddings).

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 January 2010 source ↗

Hugh Jackman

The birth of my children.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2022 source ↗

Audra McDonald Singer and actor

In the hospital giving birth to my second daughter with my first daughter right there in the room as it was happening. I don’t remember any pain. I just remember feeling more alive and full of fierce mama bear love than at any other point in my life.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2023 source ↗

Daphne Guinness British socialite

I am often happiest on a shoot with David LaChapelle, being pushed to the extremes – either suspended from a harness or immersed in a tank of water. He calls it “extreme modelling”.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 July 2024 source ↗