10 people I would love to have over for dinner

So who I would invite for dinner if the genie was generous. Caveat : They can be anyone, dead or alive but not fictional. And I could ask them 1 QUESTION they cannot answer dishonestly.

My 10 are :

 

1. Christopher Hitchens, brilliant author, orator, polemic, intellectual and journalist (question for him : “After debunking The Almighty, who were the next three people/institutions you would have loved to take down ?”)

2. American cartoonist Bill Watterson who sketched Calvin and Hobbes (“How do you personally view the world that we inhabit with all it’s fissures ? Is there hope for us ? “)

3. Author Naipaul (“If you were asked to re-draft Nehru’s Tryst with Destiny speech, what would you have penned?”)

4. Roger Ebert , American film critic (“I did not ‘get’ the brouhaha over 2001: A Space Odyssey . what am I missing ?”)

5. Bill Bryson, a best-selling American author of humorous books esp on travel (“Tell me the most interesting thing you stumbled into off late Bill!”)

6. Late night comedy hosts John Stewart and Stephen Colbert (“Tell me what you guys would do and enact in Year 1 if you guys were elected President and VP of USA ?”)

7. Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and June Thomas, the three people who run the ‘Slate Culture Gabfest’ (“what 3 things the current culture over-rates all the bloody time”)

8. Gandhi and Nehru (“Here is the current updated book of events that transpired from 1947 till today in India. Now, you guys still think we were ready ?….and oh, that gentlemen across the table is an author called Naipaul. He has a few words for you both…”)

9. Al Pacino, actor (“What’s the one role that you saw onscreen, thought was very good and also that modesty aside YOU could have nailed it and done a better job of onscreen ?”)

10. Sidin Vadukut, a columnist, twitterer and blogger (“Where does this all lead to in India ? what is the end game you foresee ?”)

Update 2018 : Not interested anymore in Sidin, Nehru, Gandhi, Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and June Thomas or Colbert. Would replace with > AA Gill, Musk, Tim Urban, Dan Carlin, Sam Harris.