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Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor Books

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“One of the more difficult questions I used to find myself being asked as a United Nations official, especially when I had been addressing a generalist audience, was: What is the single most important thing that can be done to improve the world?... If I had to pick one thing we must do above all else, I now offer a two-word mantra: "Educate girls.”

EducationGirls
Book:The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India, the Emerging 21st-century Power
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“With the absorption of each native state, the (East India) company official John Sullivan observed in 1840s: "The little court disappears--the capital decays--trade languishes--the capital decays--the people are impoverished--the Englishman flourishes, and acts like a sponge, drawing up riches from the banks of the Ganges, and squeezing them down upon the banks of the Thames.”

HistoryIndiaColonialismExploitationColonisationBritish India
Book:An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India
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“And then, of course, there was the sari itself. What a garment, Randy! There isn’t another outfit in the world that balances better the twin feminine urges to conceal and reveal. It outlines the woman’s shape but hides the faults a skirt can’t — under a sari a heavy behind, unflattering legs are invisible. But it also reveals the midriff, a part of the anatomy most Western women hide all the time. I was mesmerized, Randy, by the mere fact of being able to see her belly button when she walked, the single fold of flesh above the knot of her sari, the curve of her waist toward her hips. That swell of flesh just above a woman’s hipbone, Randy, is the sexiest part of the female anatomy to me. And I didn’t even have to undress her to see it. I was completely smitten.”

IndiaSexual AttractionSari
Book:Riot
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“Basically, there are two kinds of stereotypes out there in the world about America. There's America the Goliath - the big, powerful, bullying country that pushes its way around the world and gets its ways, pursues its own interests nakedly, irrespective of what others want. And the other stereotype is America, the land of opportunity, where everyone can go and do anything, be anything, make any dreams come true.”

WorldWayWantKindTwoCountryDreamBigsAmericaOpportunityInterestPowerfulLandPursueAround The WorldBullyingStereotypeDreams Come TrueGoliathLand Of Opportunity
Author:Shashi Tharoor
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“A philosopher is a lover of wisdom, not of knowledge, which for all its great uses ultimately suffers from the crippling effect of ephemerality. All knowledge is transient, linked to the world around it and subject to change as the world changes, whereas wisdom, true wisdom is eternal, immutable. To be philosophical one must love wisdom for its own sake, accept its permanent validity and yet its perpetual irrelevance. It is the fate of the wise to understand the process of history and yet never to shape it.”

WorldUseSufferingProcessAcceptingWiseFateSubjectsEffectsLoversShapesEternalPhilosophicalSakePhilosopherPermanentPerpetualLinkedTransientValidityTrue WisdomIrrelevanceLove Wisdom
Author:Shashi Tharoor
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“Hindu fundamentalism is a contradiction in terms, since Hinduism is a religion without fundamentals; there is no such thing as a Hindu heresy. How dare a bunch of goondas shrink the soaring majesty of the Vedas and the Upanishads to the petty bigotry of their brand of identity politics?”

TermIdentityFundamentalsDareBunchBrandsContradictionBigotryHinduismFundamentalismSoarPettyShrinksMajestyHeresyIdentity PoliticsVedas
Book:The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India, the Emerging 21st-century Power
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“If America is a melting pot, then to me India is a thali--a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast.”

IfsDoeDifferentTogetherAmericaNextTasteIndiaMealsPotSatisfyingPlatesBowlsDishesSelectionMeltingComplementMelting PotSumptuous
Book:The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India, the Emerging 21st-century Power
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“This is the one international institution we have in which governments get together to work collectively for a common purpose. International crises, by definition, require international solutions. Peacekeeping is a response to conflict, is a response to situations in which often it is not the business of any one particular country to get into. It seems to me, therefore, that the world will for the foreseeable future need peacekeeping.”

WorldNeedsCountrySeemsGovernmentTogetherPurposeCommonSituationParticularConflictSolutionsCrisisInstitutionsResponseInternationalDefinitionsGet TogetherProblems And SolutionsSolution To A ProblemPeacekeepingCommon Purpose
Author:Shashi Tharoor
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