Shashi Tharoor

Apart from writing and diplomacy, Shashi Tharoor is passionate about cricket. Whenever he finds time from his busy schedule, he enjoys watching matches; though as a player he never made a mark. As he puts it jokingly, “I wanted to play cricket badly. And that's what I did. I played cricket badly.” But of course he satisfied his urge by playing in obscure teams in Singapore and Geneva .

Theatre is another area that interests him. This suave, urbane and articulate diplomat tried his hands at acting too. He was actively involved with the Shakespearian production and played the role of Mark Anthony in “Anthony and Cleopatra”.

The Great Indian Novel uses the great Hindu epic, The Mahabharata , to retell the history of modern India . Characters and situations are thinly veiled caricatures of well known elements of myth and politics. Even the title The Great Indian Novel is a loose translation of the word "Mahabharata." Commenting on his own work, Tharoor writes that "... the concerns in the book emerged from years of indiscriminate reading and slightly more discriminate study of Indian history and politics... [The Mahabharata ] had such a contemporary resonance that I instantly thought, here is a vehicle for the book that I want to write about the forces that have made (and nearly unmade) our country"

Tharoor affirms and enhances Indian cultural identity through his novel by reflecting on pluralism and openness in India 's kaleidoscopic culture. He also aims to broaden the understanding of Indian culture and historical heritage. Tharoor writes that "the task of altering and shaping such resonant characters and situations to tell a contemporary story offered a rare opportunity to strike familiar chords while playing an unfamiliar tune". Thus this novel, by interpreting reality through myth and history, concludes that India has a vast heritage from which much can be learned.

As Tharoor himself says, " Riot is set in a very unfashionable and now largely forgotten time, 1989, forgotten partially because it was a precursor to the bigger event, which eclipsed all else, the Babri Masjid destruction. It was not the big headline story that I wanted; what I wanted actually, was the kind of thing that happens in the real lives of people, in some insignificant town. So, I invented one. What I also tried to do was to use the novel to explore broader issues of cultural collisions. It is a novel full of collisions of various sorts - personal, political, emotional and violent. I also tried to use differences in two ways: to bring out a certain sense of reality of life experienced and truth, whatever that may be and also to bring out truths in different voices, each believing they know a part of their truth, in a context or framework where there is no omniscient narrator. Ultimately there is only the reader."

Tharoor's latest work, which commemorates the 50th anniversary of India 's independence, provides analysis of both India 's past and future. In writing, Tharoor felt that a book was needed which explored what Independence really meant for India . Tharoor's themes include India 's rich cultural heritage, India 's contribution to the Western world, and the far-reaching role of past in present day problems. He explores these through a variety of issues such as affirmative action, the caste system, governmental corruption, and the strength of Indian democracy.

Tharoor's observations about India are extremely optimistic. Tharoor provides this assessment: "[India has] tremendous strengths...energy, dynamism, skills, and great will to work and to achieve, and astonishing capacity to save and invest, perhaps, above all, the freedom to express our views, change our leaders and determine our own fates" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat). The modern India he describes possesses entrepreneurial sprit, diminishing corruption, and a strong sense of democracy. India has survived all these years because "it has maintained consensus on how to manage without consensus".

Neheru: An Invention of India is an exclusive biography by Shashi Tharoor. While writing about Neheru the author also tells the history of India as well as analyses political strategies and policies taken up at different times to make the India of Our time. An intrinsically written and critically analyzed book that deals with different facets of Jabaharlal Neheru.

A fiction based on bollywood, Show Business is a humorous tale that sometimes tells us the inside story of the tinsel town and sometimes mocks at the false impression it has created among the minds of the viewers. A close quarter study of how beneath the larger than life image of the stars and their idiosyncrasies lies the puniness of an ordinary human being- vulnerable, sensitive and insecure- Show Business is an interesting read.