Shashi Tharoor is a successful Indian English writer and a top official at the United Nations peace keeping staff and executive assistant to UN secretary General Koffi Annan. Born in London in 1956 he studied in Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi, did his B.A in history from St. Stephen's College. He completed his Ph.D at the age of 22 from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, US.

He worked since 1978 in United Nations under the UN High Commisioner for Refugees. Since 1989 he is working as a senior official at the United Nations Head Quarters in New York. From January 1997 to July 1998, he was executive assistant to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in July 1998 he was appointed as direcotr of communications and special projects in th office of the Secretary General.

In January 2001, he was appointed by the Secretary-General as interim head of the Dept. of Public Information. Shashi received many accolades for his writing, he was awarded the Excelsior Award for excellence in literature by the Association of Indians in America (AIA) and the Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP).

He als received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in International Affairs from the University of Puget Sound in May 2000. He is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, the India International Centre in New Delhi, and the American PEN Center. He is also an elected Fellow of the New York Institute of the Humanities 1995-96. Shashi Tharoor is married to writer Tilottama Tharoor and is the father of twin sons

Books written by Shashi

(i) Reasons of State (1982) a scholarly study of Indian foreign policy;

(ii) The Great Indian Novel (1989), a political satire;

(iii) The Five-Dollar Smile & Other Stories (1990)

(iv) Show Business (1992), which received a front-page accolade from The New York Times Book Review.

(v) From Midnight to the Millennium was published on the 50th anniversary of India's independence.

(vi) Penguin Books (India) published Tharoor's latest novel Riot.