Shashi Tharoor, a man whose time has come

By John Cheeran
Yes, Shashi Tharoor belongs to the smart set.
All along Tharoor has been considered too sophisticated to inherit the raw earthiness of a being Malayali, a gift from his beloved parents.
Tharoor, however, is now looked upon as a Malayali whose time has come in the wide, wild world.
Shashi's parents, Chandran and Lily, are Malayalis and in the past, his mother has often stressed that ethnic point. Tharoor is in news now as India has fielded him as their candidate for the post of United Nations Secretary General.
Tharoor's life has been a strange combination of a writer and a bureaucrat. Apparently Tharoor loves the certainties of a ordered life as a bureaucrat rather than the bulls and bears of a Writer Inc., a la Paulo Coelho.
Tharoor has written three novels, but in an age of a great success for Indians writing in English, he has not tasted enough glory.
I should admit that I have ready only his first novel, The Great Indian Novel, a truly remarkable satire. May be the fact that Shashi is regarded as a light weight in comparison to Amitava Goshs, Vikram Seths and Arundhati Roys, might have contributed to even in my failure to chase and read his other novels, Show Business and Riot.
But all the same the secret of Shashi's success has been his fidelity to facts as well as his loyalty to fiction.
The man who was once described by the media as Kofi Annan's eyes and ears is a great articulator and his forays into journalism too are remarkable. For that matter, which other Indian English writer has written a biography of the peerless Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru? Only Tharoor has done it and only he could have done it among those creative souls.
Tharoor, having been associated with the UN since 1989, is an insider in this battle with in the United Nations.
Will India and Tharoor be able to garner enough votes to win the contest?
Tharoor has grown into the candidate's role with ease and finesse. Last I heard him saying in New Delhi that he too has some qualifications to seize the job. That is a confident Indian's surefootedness. A quality that was last seen in another Malayali, V.K. Krishna Menon, who was India's representative to the UN and a former Union Defence Minister and in short supply ever since.
As someone who has played crucial roles in resolving global crises one after another, Tharoor is likely to bring in all his negotiator's talents to the table now. The fact that Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and South Korea are putting up their own candidates should work in Shashi's favour.
The more candidates there are, the more chances for votes getting split.
If Tharoor wins, it would be a moment of joy and pride for all Indians. Therewould be a deep sense of achievement in Kerala, where his parents were born.
Shashi himself was born in London. Perhaps a gentle hint of his cosmopolitan future. He was educated in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi (BA in History, St. Stephen'sCollege), and the United States (he got his PhD at the age of 22 from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University).
Beyond pride, beyond joy, beyond that deep sense of achievement how shall it matter?
The post of UN Secretary General is equivalent to being a head constable in an Indian police station. The real power lies else where. Head constable has to obey his political masters.
The head constable of global police will have to obey the orders from the Permanent Five, with veto power. But who knows, Tharoor can make a real difference to the global political order. After all, India is on the ascent, as they say. Can Tharoor be far behind?