"Shashi Tharoor is one of those rare writers who felicitously combines gentle satire with an urgent concern for society`s ills." - Kirkus Review. His innovative writings are centered on Indian themes and "indo-nostalgic" elements. An author, journalist and fellow of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, is an Indian national from the state of Kerala.

Born in London in March 9,1956, Tharoor was educated in India and United States. He married Tilottama Tharoor. Tilottama is a journalist and scholar and now divorced from Shashi Tharoor. They have twin sons, Ishaan and Kanishk. Ishaan works for Time Magazine and lives in Hong Kong. The other brother Kanishk works for openDemocracy in London.

In India Tharoor studied at Montfort School in Yercaud, Campion School in Mumbai. He came to Kolkata to attended High School at St. Xavier`s Collegiate School. Shashi Tharoor received his graduation with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from St. Stephen`s College, Delhi. Then he completed his Ph. D. at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he received the Robert B. Stewart Prize for Best Student in 1978.


Since 1978, Shashi Tharoor has been working for the United Nations, serving with UN high Commissioner for refugees. Since 1989 he has been a senior official at the United Nations headquarters in New York. He was responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia during this period. From 1997 to 1998 he served as the executive assistant to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Then after appointed as the director of communications and special projects. In 2001, he was appointed by the Secretary-General as interim head of the Department of Public Information. He was confirmed as the Under Secretary General for Communications and Public Information on 2002. In 2003, the Secretary-General appointed him United Nations Coordinator for Multilingualism. In February 2007 he resigned from the post.

Dr Tharoor is Chairman of Dubai-based Afras Ventures and the Joint Chairman of United Nations Simulation International Conference at Abu Dhabi and Dubai in short UNSICAD. Shashi Tharoor is the award-winning author of nine books, as well as hundreds of articles, op-ed page 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 and The Times of India. He worked for two years as a Contributing Editor and occasional columnist for Newsweek International. Since April 2001 he has been the author of a fortnightly column in The Hindu and since January 2007 in The Times of India.

His three novels are the classics in a sense it incorporates the "indo-nostalgic" elements. "The Great Indian Novel" in1989 is a satirical novel basically a fictional work which takes the story of the Mahabharata, the epic of Hindu mythology and resets in the context of the Indian Independence. The mythical story of India is retold as the history of Indian independence. His post modern satirical novel "Show Business" in 1992 tells the story of a Bollywood superstar, was made into film `Bollywood` in 1994. The novel describes the working of Bollywood. It received a front-page accolade in the New York Times Book Review. "Riot" is his third novel released in 2001. It is a searing examination of Hindu-Muslim violence in contemporary India. Shashi Tharoor`s books have been translated into Malayalam, Marathi, French, German, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian and Spanish.

"The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories" in 1990 is a fiction by Dr. Shashi Tharoor. His non-fictions includes "Reasons of State" in 1982, "India: From Midnight to the Millennium" in 1997, "Kerala: God`s own country" in 2002, "Nehru: The Invention of India" in 2003 and "Bookless in Baghdad" in 2005.

In his lifetime Shashi Tharoor has been recipient of several awards such as `Rajika Kripalani Young Journalist Award` for the Best Indian Journalist under thirty in 1976. He won the `Federation of Indian Publishers-Hindustan Times Literary Award` for "The Great Indian Novel" in 1990 and Commonwealth Writers` Prize in 1991 for the Best Book of the Year in the Eurasian Region. The `Excelsior Award` was awarded to him in 1998 for his excellence in literature by the Association of Indians in America (AIA) and the Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP). In January 1998, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, named Dr. Tharoor a "Global Leader of Tomorrow". The honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in International Affairs from the University of Puget Sound has been received by him in May 2000.

In 2004 India`s highest honour for non-resident Indians `Pravasi Bharatiya Samman has been awarded to Shashi Tharoor but according to UN rules receiving of govermental awards during the tenureship are prohibited. He accepted the award soon after leaving UN.

Dr. Shashi Tharoor perhaps is the youngest Under Secretary General appointed in the history of the United Nations. He has also been the outspoken critic of R.K Narayan`s work.