Shashi Tharoor gives life lesson to a student who asked him to teach a new word
Whenever we think of Shashi Tharoor, we are immediately reminded of his exemplary speeches. The Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram has left us scratching our heads with his ‘not so regular’ exotic vocabulary and there is indeed lots to learn from this politician. Probably he reads dictionaries more often than we think, right? Well, if that is what you think, let me tell you what has led to this author of 18 books becoming the most sought after orator in the country.
It appears, the Congress MP was at a college event when a student asked him to give them a word of the day from his vocabulary, reports IE. The former diplomat was quick to respond to the pupil’s question. He took to social media to share his response and that’s a lesson all of us should learn.
My reply to a student who asked me to give him a new word in view of my reputation as a fount of exotic vocabulary: pic.twitter.com/I6mr9DOX6m
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) November 11, 2019
In the video Shashi says:
“I’ll give you a very simple and very old word. Read. That’s the only way I acquired my vocabulary. People think that I am some sort of nut case who studies the dictionary all day long. I have barely opened a dictionary in my life, but I have read extensively. And if you read widely, you read extensively and you come across the same word in their different contexts, in three different books, you will understand the meaning and the usage very quickly.”
He went on to say:
“The reason I was like that is, of course, I had some advantages over all of you. I have lived in an India without television, without computers, without Nintendo, without PlayStation, without mobile phones. And I was an asthmatic child so I was very often confined to bed unable to breathe.
All I had was books, books were my escape, books were my education. And because I read and I read above my age-level, anything I get my hands on. I developed the kind of mind that God has now blessed me with and I acquired the vocabulary that comes with it. So my only advice to all of you is read, read and read.”
“The more you read the better your vocabulary will be,” Tharoor adds.
Twitter was in awe of the MP's advice to the student and added that the younger generation should follow the advice and read more.
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Congress cites Maniben Patel's diary entries, asks Rajnath to apologise for Babri claim
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Saturday shared diary entries of Vallabhbhai Patel's daughter from a book to rebut Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's claim that India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds, and demanded that Singh apologise for spreading "falsehoods".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, claimed the defence minister was spreading falsehoods to “improve his relationship” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Here is Maniben's original diary entry in Gujarati on pages 212-213 in the book ‘Samarpit Padchhayo Sardarno’ by CA R S Patel 'Aaresh', published by Sardar Patel Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society, 2025,” Ramesh said on X, sharing screenshots of the relevant pages from the book.
“There is a huge difference between what is contained in the original diary entry and what Rajnath Singh ji and his fellow ‘distorians’ are propagating,” Ramesh said.
“The Defence Minister must apologise for the falsehoods he is spreading, simply to improve his relationship with the PM,” he claimed.
The Congress had earlier termed Singh's claim that Nehru wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds a “lie” and “WhatsApp university story”, and said the defence minister should not walk in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's path.
Addressing a gathering at Sadhli village in Gujarat's Vadodara district last Tuesday, Singh said Nehru wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds, but Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel didn't allow his plans to succeed.
The BJP had cited a book by Vallabhbhai Patel's daughter to double down on Singh's claims, and said the first prime minister also said he felt "repelled" by some of the temples in south India despite their beauty.
“The source of what Rajnath Singh said is the 'Inside Story of Sardar Patel, Diary of Maniben Patel'," BJP Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi had said at a press conference at the party headquarters while responding to media queries on the issue.
Trivedi claimed that on Page 24 of the book, it is written that Nehru also raised the question of the Babri mosque, but Sardar Patel made it clear that the government could not spend any money on building a mosque.
