“I have many responsibilities as a politician and as you know it is not an easy job, I get less time to pen down my thoughts”, said Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor at a book launch in the Capital. Talking about his journey in writing he said that he started writing at the age of 6. “I was an asthmatic child and didn’t get to go out and play with my friends very often. I loved writing and as I was youngest in the family, I borrowed books from elder brothers and sisters quite often,” he recalled.
At the age of ten, a story he had penned came out in a Sunday newspaper and his father supported him to the extent that “he circulated its copies to all his friends”.
Over the years he realised that writing is more than a hobby for him and he has 20 books to his credit.
One thing that he mentions in almost all his interviews is the feeling that he had undergone when he became the youngest under-secretary general in the history of the United Nations. He recalled that was the time when he devoted most of his energy in reading and writing. “When I joined the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva back in 1978, I said that while other people have other hobbies, what I do over the weekends is to write, and I want to make sure that I can do it. So they gave me written permission to be able to write,” he recalled. However, he ensured that his writing did not undermine either the organization or his effectiveness as a UN official.
He always believed that writing and work are quite distinct from each other. “There is something inside you and something outside and when two of them click together, a spark originates,” he said.
Tharoor has written numerous books and most of his literary creations are centered on Indian themes. One of his most famous works is The Great Indian Novel which was published in 1989 in which he uses the narrative themes of Mahabharata to weave a satirical story of Indian life in a non-linear mode with characters drawn from the Indian Independence Movement. His novel Show Business was made into the film ‘Bollywood’ in 1994. The late Ismail Merchant had announced his wish to make a film of Tharoor’s novel Riot shortly before his death in 2005.
Even though he has lived abroad for many years, Tharoor is a man deep rooted to his soil. He loves being called an Indian writer and has immense respect for the culture he comes from.
Not many people know that he is a theatre buff and has conquered stage with the most brilliant characters of all times. He played Antony to Mira Nair’s Cleopatra in a 1974 production of Antony and Cleopatra. He was also the founder of Quiz Club at the St Stephen’s College where he studied in the early 1970s.
About his New Year resolution he said, “I have no plans till now but I have many responsibilities as a politician but I haven’t forgotten writing so it should start soon”.
Name of the Source: Dainik Jagran