Writer, politician and public intellectual Shashi Tharoor is the award-winning author of 19 books of fiction and non-fiction. A third-term Member of Parliament, representing Thiruvananthapuram, Dr. Tharoor has served as Minister of State in the Government of India and also as Under-Secretary General of the United Nations. His unerring sense of humour lightens up the serious oeuvre of his work, which includes a powerful indictment of colonialism. His predilection for long words and telling phrases has created a sub-genre of #Tharoorisms, and his recent attempts at stand up comedy have won him a constituency of admirers. In conversation with Michael Dwyer, he speaks of the personal and the political, and the beliefs and ideas that have anchored him in his public life and literary career.