TIMES OF INDIA: Sunday Newsmagazine
by Naresh Fernandes
1997

Shashi Tharoor takes the United Nations very seriously, but his passion for wordplay sometimes gets in the way. Staffers still chuckle over the message he faxed to the UN special envoy in the former Yugoslavia: Tharoor suggested that the new operation in Croatia be known as WIMP (The Weapons Interception and Monitoring Project) while Bosnia would be served by UNFIGLEAF (the United Nations Force for the Implementation of Grand Legal Exhortations while Acting Feebly), Macedonia, meanwhile would be supervised by UNFYROM or the United Nations Force for Yielding to Ridiculous and Otiose Mandates.

There’s always the risk that I’ll push the straw too hard against the camel’s back one day," says Tharoor with a smile, “but so far I’ve got away with a great deal. And when I’m required to do things seriously, I do.”

Still, it isn’t always easy naming branches of the UN, an acronym that conveys state of non-being, as it were. Tharoor thought long and hard when the UN first launched its actions in Yugoslavia in 1991, before semi-jokingly suggesting to former US secretary of state Cyrus Vance that the operation be called the United Nations Interim Force in Yugoslavia, or UNIFY. The UN, in its wisdom, chose the more prosaic UNPROFOR instead, the United Nations Protection Force.

This doesn’t mean that Tharoor simply dreams up goofy titles. The author of The Great Indian Novel and Show Business is currently executive assistant to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Before that, Tharoor was in charge of the Yugoslavia division in the UN’s department of peace-keeping operations.

The décor of his office bears witness to the duality of Tharoor’s professional life. Framed jackets of his books – the artwork for the Indian, American and British editions, along with the covers of German, French and Italian translations – run along the length of one wall. Behind his desk is a Nobel Peace Prize citation, awarded to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in 1981 for its work on the Vietnamese boat people. Tharoor was among the 800 people who worked with it at the time, which makes him “one-eight hundredth of a Nobel laureate,” he says wryly.

The problems of the global village often force Tharoor to work 18-hour days, seven days a week, leaving little time for literature. In fact, his latest book – a reflection on India on the 50th anniversary of its independence, titled From Midnight to the Millennium – got written only because there was a lull between the signing in November 1995 of the Dayton Agreement (which helped end hostilities in the former Yugoslavia) and Kofi Annan’s election last December.

Since he was appointed to his new job, Tharoor has traveled through more countries than he can remember and has read – and written – thousands of memos. Skimping on sleep doesn’t seem to bother him, though. He’s all adrenalin, even in the middle of a muggy May afternoon as the sun glints off mid-Manhattan skyscrapers and everyone rips off their neckties.

While office assistants in the corridor of the UN building chatter away in three languages, Tharoor holds forth on the importance of the organization. “In the kind of world in which we live today it’s essential for governments and countries to be able to cooperate,” he says. “You have to be able to look beyond national boundaries because there are many problems that cross national boundaries.”

To wit, issues concerning the environment, development, world health, peace and security. “In Churchill’s words, jaw jaw is better than war war,” Tharoor enthuses. “The UN is one environment in which governments can work together to solve common problems which, by their very nature, transcend national borders and require an international response.”

Tharoor became convinced of the UN’s relevance when he headed the Singapore office of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. He remembers seeing one family get off the boat after a four-day trip during which they had not eaten or drunk anything. Tharoor was also on hand when, after some months in a refugee camp, they were ready to embark on new lives in the United States.

“There’s only so much assistance that church groups and voluntary organizations can give,” he says. “I really was able to put my head to the pillow at night knowing that actions I had undertaken during the day had made a difference to real human beings’ lives."

While in the peacekeeping department, Tharoor ensured that the day-to-day decisions in the New York headquarters were made and conveyed to the troops on the ground in Yugoslavia. “Though I didn’t actually have the satisfaction of directly solving a problem….there was still the opportunity to be part of one of the great historical events of our time,” he says, “and to leave one’s smudgy thumbprints on the pages of history.”

With such tasks at hand, Tharoor has had little time to write. India: From Midnight to the Millennium is his first book since Show Business in 1992. The new book, he says is a “personal and subjective look at India”.

“In many ways,” says Tharoor “its easier to say what the book isn’t; it isn’t an academic work, it isn’t journalism, it isn’t memoir and it isn’t fiction. Any yet there’s a little bit of each.”

Though he has lived abroad since he was 19, Tharoor does not consider himself an expatriate writer. “I’m an Indian writer who happens to be posted abroad,” he says. “That sense of an expatriation of circumstance does not require the intellectual leap of the imagination that emigration implies.”

Tharoor keeps in touch with India as best he can, reading Indian publications and visiting once a year. Technology has made things easier. Two years ago, Tharoor could only indulge his passion for cricket by listening to the static of BBC World Service broadcasts or reading day-old copies of the London Times. With the internet, Tharoor can follow bal-by-ball play from his office.

Tharoor’s Goan assistant signals that he has another appointment to attend. But he has, a final assertion. “Cricket. That’s what I miss most about not living in India, he says. It’s an infection in the blood."