Who was the English teacher of Shashi Tharoor?

 I do not have any knowledge about who all were Tharoor’s teachers. There could have been multiple teachers who have contributed to his intellectual growth as well as to make his command of English stronger. His teachers could have been any of those common teachers randomly teaching a batch of 30–40 students in a class and multiple such classes in a day for over 30 years or so. However, we know nothing of those other students taught by the same teacher or the teacher himself. A lot depends on the student himself, and his hunger for learning and knowledge.

I wouldn’t say that the institution and the teachers do not matter, but you have to get that one student who has an insatiable hunger. Possibly Tharoor himself would be able to throw light on who shaped him up in his early years. There must have been someone who influenced his young mind. On my personal account, I give entire credit to my father and my school English teacher of 9th & 10th class for whatever a few lines I am being able to write today. I have studied in a vernacular medium school, so their contributions have been immense.

The Tharoor we know now must have been transformed over the years because of his long years of exposure to the diplomatic world and politics. Apart from his treasure of vocabulary and command over English, what makes him unique is his thought process. The kind of language he uses is the outcome of his critical thinking ability. Even if you find someone with a vocabulary as strong as that of Tharoor, possibly he or she wouldn’t be speaking in a similar manner.

Sometime back I wrote that vocabulary is like raw chicken. What an individual master chef will cook would depend on his specialization, what he likes as well as what the customers order. Also, it may depend on which country or contaminant he is serving. So you have different tastes with different Chefs even when they cook the same dish.

Tharoor is an accomplished writer, having authored 23 bestselling works of fiction and non-fiction. In addition, he has written hundreds of article columns in internationally acclaimed journals and publications. He was a contributing editor for Newsweek International for a period of two years. Tharoor started writing at the age of 6 and his first story was published in a journal when he was 10 years old. Tharoor was formerly the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and he ran for the post of The Secretary-General in 2006. The US didn’t want a strong candidate like Tharoor and he was vetoed. Tharoor withdrew his candidature and ended his career in the UN even though he was invited by Baan Ki-Moon to continue his service as Under-Secretary-General.

Tharoor is a combo of being an accomplished writer, a career diplomat of the highest degree, and a politician. So possibly this is what gives his communication an invincible twist. This along with his extraordinary command over the language makes him speak in a manner that mostly goes beyond our comprehension. He doesn’t need to put any effort into speaking like that, because he thinks at that level. Possibly on the contrary, he has to put effort to scale it down to match our level of understanding.