HYDERABAD: Former union minister and Lok Sabha MP Dr Shashi Tharoor's 23rd book, 'Pride, Prejudice and Punditry', was launched in Hyderabad on Saturday with great fanfare and received an overwhelming response from readers.
"In my 40 years as an author, this is my 23rd book, being launched in your city,” Dr Tharoor said in a video message to book lovers of Hyderabad. The book, published by Aleph, was earlier launched in Delhi.
The launch was followed by a conversation witnessed by over 150 of the city’s elite as audience, including Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary, the state government. When asked about his preference between fiction and non-fiction, Tharoor said non-fiction was much easier to write. "I like fiction and to go back to it," he said. When asked about challenges of choosing right expressions, he gave an example of his own, where the term cattle class, an expression he used unwittingly, invited the wrath of his party.
“A certain word or expression may look apt and appropriate but when translated into a different language it means totally different,” he added. He also spoke about his stint at the UN and things that followed as he ran for UN Secretary General’s nomination and elaborated on how it fizzled out.
There are ten sections in his book, each devoted to a particular topic. ‘The Company of Giants’ looks at some of the most important figures of modern Indian history; ‘Into the Maelstrom of Indian Politics’ contains work on the Indian political scene; ‘Our Unruly World’ covers international relations and diplomacy; ‘The Hindu Way’ examines various aspects of the faith; ‘Musings of a Cricket Tragic’ includes some of his finest writing on the sport; ‘You Cannot Be Serious!’ is a light-hearted take on sundry matters; ‘Fragments of an Autobiography’ has poignant essays about his parents and an evocative look at his Kerala heritage;
‘The Spoken Word’ is a selection of his most famous speeches; ‘The Writerly Life’ comprises ruminations on writing and writers; and ‘Selected Fiction and Poetry’ showcases his masterpieces of fiction and poetry.
