At Present:
A man who has straddled many spheres, Dr. Shashi Tharoor is currently the Minister of Parliament from the constituency of Thiruvananthapuram and also the Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India.
The Beginning:
The son of proud parents Chandran and Lily Tharoor, Shashi was born in London on the 9th of March, 1956. His educational background only added to his passion for diversity. Montfort School in Yercaud , Campion School in Mumbai, St. Xavier’s Collegiate School in Kolkata, followed by St. Stephen’s College, Delhi for Bachelor of Arts in History, and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Massachusetts are his alma mater. Shashi always stood first in his class (barring 8th grade, where he stood 2nd!) and received two Master’s and a Ph.D from his graduate school by age 22-a Fletcher record.
The U.N chapter
Years of experience( 32 to be precise) at the United Nations saw Shashi Tharoor rise to the post of Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information. His association with this prestigious organization began with the UN High Commission for Refugees in Geneva. Later as a senior official at the UN Headquarters in New York, he headed various key peacekeeping missions around the globe. A senior advisor to the Secretary General, Shashi officially left the U.N on 31st March, 2007.
India calling
On 19 March 2009, Tharoor was declared as the Indian National Congress candidate of the Trivandrum constituency in Kerala for the General Elections in 2009. This “ elite outsider” as his opponents used to call him, cut across all party lines and won a thumping victory, defeating the rival by a margin of around 100,000 votes (the biggest ever by any candidate in Thiruvananthapuram in over 30 years). On 28 May 2009, Shashi Tharoor was sworn in as Minister of State of the Union Government of India as External Affairs minister.
A man of letters and words
Dr Tharoor is also the award-winning author of eleven books, as well as hundreds of articles, op-eds and book reviews in a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune, Time, Newsweek, The Times of India and The Hindu. He has served for two years as a Contributing Editor and occasional columnist for Newsweek International.
His collection of twelve books showcase the landscape of his literary talents. Be it a non-fiction book on India-Pakistan cricket( Shadows Across the Playing Field-2009) or a biography of Pandit Nehru or fictional short stories( The Five Dollar Smile 1990), Shashi has always found time for his love of writing. The renowned books on India ‘The Elephant, the Tiger and The Cellphone’(2007), The Great Indian Novel(1989) and From Midnight to the Millenium(1997) are essential readings for anyone embarking on a journey of getting to know India or trying to understand it better. His novel ‘Show Business’( 1992) was made into the motion picture ‘Bollywood’.Shashi Tharoor’s books have been translated into French, German, Italian, Malayalam, Marathi, Polish, Romanian, Russian and Spanish.
Dr Tharoor is an internationally known speaker on India’s recent transformation and future prospects, globalisation, freedom of the press, human rights, literacy, Indian culture, and India’s present and potential influence in world politics. Shashi serves on the Board of Overseers of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the board of trustees of the Aspen Institute, and the Advisory Boards of the Indo-American Arts Council, the American India Foundation, the World Policy Journal, the Virtue Foundation and the human rights organization Breakthrough. Dr Tharoor has been appointed an International Adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva for the period 2008-2011. He is also a Fellow of the New York Institute of the Humanities and the Patron of the Dubai Modern School.
Some important recognitions:
- In 1976, at age 20, he won the Rajika Kripalani Young Journalist Award for the Best Indian Journalist under 30.In 1990, he won the Federation of Indian Publishers-Hindustan Times Literary Award for the Best Book of the Year for The Great Indian Novel, which also won a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 1991 for the Best Book of the Year in the Eurasian Region.
- In 1998, Tharoor was awarded the Excelsior Award for excellence in literature by the Association of Indians in America (AIA) and the Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP).
- In January 1998, Dr. Tharoor was named a “Global Leader of Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
- He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in International Affairs from the University of Puget Sound in May 2000 and a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the University of Bucharest, Romania, in May 2008. In 2004, he was awarded the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman( India’s highest honour for overseas Indians)
Recently Dr. Tharoor received the Pride of India Award from the Zakir Husain Memorial Founation, Nagpur. The Hakim Khan Sur Award for National Integration was presented to him by Maharana of Udaipur on March 15, 2009.
The future holds promise:
Success never seems to elude Dr. Tharoor. A firm head on his shoulder, ‘Minister Twitter’ is grounded in his passion for pursuing his responsibilities whole heartedly. He is the face of change we need in our governance today.