Shashi Tharoor— Know your Firstpost Salon guest

Editor’s Note: Shashi Tharoor will be the featured guest of the second Firstpost Salon, a series of conversations with India’s best minds and biggest names. From international diplomat to two-time Congress MP, Shashi Tharoor makes for an unusual politician. Whether his party is in power or out of it, the Twitter-happy suave Tharoor always makes news. We will be live streaming “Return of the native- a very personal conversation with Shashi Tharoor” on Monday, July 13 from 5 pm . Do tune in and don’t forget to send us (@firstpostin) your questions for Tharoor on Twitter or on Facebook so we can include them in our conversation, which will map the many journeys of Shashi Tharoor, parliamentarian, writer and the native who returned to India. From international diplomat to two-time Congress MP, Shashi Tharoor makes for an unusual politician. Whether his party is in power or out of it, the Twitter-happy suave Tharoor always makes news. This conversation will map the many journeys of Shashi Tharoor, parliamentarian, writer and the native who returned to India. Currently a second-term Lok Sabha MP representing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency , Tharoor is an author, politician, and former international civil servant. He has previously served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs. During his nearly three-decade long prior career at the United Nations, he served as a peacekeeper, refugee worker, and administrator, serving as Under-Secretary General during Kofi Annan’s leadership of the organisation. Born in London in 1956, Tharoor was educated in India and the United States, completing a PhD in 1978 at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at the Tufts University. Till 2013 he was the most-followed politician on Twitter in India, until Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, overtook him that year. Tharoor has written a number of books. His famous novels include the classic The Great Indian Novel (1989), Riot (2001) a searing examination of Hindu-Muslim violence in contemporary India; Show Business ( 1992) and The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories (1990) and his latest book India Shastra: Reflections on the Nation in our Time ( Jan 2015)