We caught up with Shashi Tharoor while he was between appointments
We caught up with Shashi Tharoor while he was between appointments. “The British Empire was responsible for reducing India, one of the world’s richest countries in the 17th century, to one of the poorest in the 20th century,” said the best selling author about what is being described as his explosive new book, A Long Darkness: The British Empire in India.
“It’s an extension of my lecture at the Oxford Union in May 2015,” said Tharoor about his speech that had not only helped carry the motion ‘Britain Owes Reparations to Her Former Colonies,’ but which had found a surprising resonance with young India: its YouTube replay had gone viral, garnering over 3.5 million views.
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Shashi Tharoor
“I wanted to understand the wrongs that were done yesterday, both to grasp what has brought us to our present reality and to understand the past for itself,” said the silken-tongued diplomat-turned-politician.
“When the East India Company took control of the country, in the chaos that ensued after the collapse of the Mughal empire, India’s share of world GDP was 23 per cent. When the British left it was just above 3 per cent,” he said, adding, “I’m really happy at the way the book’s turned out.’
Expect another wave of Tharoor fandom and some more Raj bashing.
Statesman of India Inc.
Following Azim Premji’s completion of 50 years at the helm of WIPRO (rev US$7.735 billion), this week has been a virtual festival of celebration in India Inc of the IT czar, one of India’s most outstanding and visionary philanthropists. The low key and media shy chairman is known to have contributed 80 per cent of the total donations made by 36 Indian philanthropists who gave over Rs 10-crore to charity, and has spent up to R27,514-crore for education through his foundation.
Azim Premji, Narayana Murthy and Harsh Goenka
“A role model, biggest philanthropist, a visionary, a friend, #AzimPremji completes today 50 years of stewardship of global powerhouse Wipro,” tweeted industrialist Harsh Goenka. But the most delightful tribute came from fellow IT czar Narayana Murthy who’s Infosys (rev $9.501 billion) was widely seen as a competitor about an epic job interview that failed.
“The head of human resources at Wipro asked me to consider heading the software group at the yet-to-be-started technology group at Wipro and arranged a meeting with Azim,” wrote Murthy.
“Azim took me to Willingdon Club in Mumbai for a discussion. He was very courteous and very easy to transact with,” he said, adding, “Apparently, I did not come up to his satisfaction and I did not get the job. I am grateful to Azim that he rejected me; else my founding of Infosys would have been delayed by a few years.”
Of such incidents history is made.
India in New York
Relieved to see that India’s flag is in good hands overseas. This picture of our friend, singer, writer, activist and India lover Maura Moynihan, daughter of former UN Senator Daniel Patrick ‘Pat’ Moynihan, taken at a reception at the Indian Consulate in New York on the occasion of Independence Day is validation of that. No right wing Modi triumphalist with bijness in their eyes but old India fans.
Maura Moynihan (centre)
“Gosh Maura you’re looking ekdum bomb,” we said to the Harvard educated resident of New York, a friend of Mick Jagger and the late John Kennedy Jr. “Thanks my dear - as you know India is the love of my life!!!!” she replied.
One thousand VIPs
Guests at the much-hyped VIP preview of a shopping extravaganza were overheard exchanging bitter notes the morning after. “We were told they were inviting one thousand VIPS,” said a lady whose tresses matched the colour of her Birkin. “Are there even one thousand VIPs in Mumbai?” she asked. “I have no clue what it was all about,” said her friend. “A hundred and forty seven stores with some of the country’s top designers represented, who had flown down for the jamboree but after waiting for four hours in our high heels, I missed the highlight of the evening which was supposed to feature a performance by Bollywood’s leading star with a magician,” she said. “All I could see was a phalanx of paparazzi clicking away like crazy,” she added.
Even as these two prime Mumbai babes, veterans of many a VIP preview compared notes, a third chimed in: “Ah but you missed the best part,” she said. “While the paparazzi were going crazy clicking away at this chotta mota TV star and Bolly hopeful, I saw this other socialite, famous for being famous, coming up with an ingenious way to get in to the frame,” she said.
Her friends looked at her intensely – after all, getting into the frame was an occupational hazard for any Mumbai socialite worth her salt.
How? said one.
“Simple. While the chotta mota star was being clicked, she sailed into the frame greeting the bewildered star with a huge hug and air kiss and a “babes HOW have you been?” said the lady.
“It was only after she had departed that the poor TV star turned to the photographers and asked — but who was she? She had never met her before!! But by then her goal had been achieved — she’d managed to get into a substantial number of frames.”
“Oof! how could she be so pushy?” said the listeners, making a note to employ the same method at the next ‘VIP Preview.’
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