He lives a dual life. Of an author and a diplomat. And neither affects the other. Forty eight-year-old Shashi Tharoor, Under Secretary-General, UN is prolific as an author even as he is busy at his job of communications and public information. He was in Mumbai recently for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD).

His credentials are impeccable. Coupled with that, his short succinct speeches along with literary quotes, Mr Tharoor’s is an unbeatable combination. No wonder he was the most sought after by the media. Though he was at the PBD as a speaker, Mr Tharoor says he is not a pravasi. India is home for him. “I still hold on to an Indian passport,” he says sweeping back his silky mane that flops onto his forehead ever so often. At the first day’s session at the PBD, he sported a bandhgalla. Perhaps, to reinforce the Indian image.

Mr Tharoor has spent a major part of his life abroad. He was born in London, went to school and college in India. Since the successful Indian was the toast at the PBD, how does he feel being an Indian at the top job at the UN? “Very happy, undoubtedly,” he says in between sipping tea and asking a TV journo to wait for a few minutes. “Though I don’t serve in an Indian capacity at the UN, but working at the UN as a team, you tend to forget where you are coming from.”

It is not just his job that gets Mr Tharoor to India. On the contrary. “I come to India every year to visit family members. My father died 10 years ago. I visit my mother in Coimbatore and grandmother in Kerala. There are fond memories of growing up here and they have shaped my mind and strongly forged a sense of belonging. This is the place I feel rooted to. I have friends here I look forward to meeting during every visit.” He laments that he has friends he has not visited in Delhi since 2001. “Perhaps, during my next visit I will.” One wonders whether he speaks Malayalam. And he laughs. “Of course I do,” he replies in chaste Malayalam. “Ask your next question in Malayalam,” he says sportingly.

Meanwhile, author Mr Tharoor is busy as ever. His next book, Bookless in Baghdad will be out next month. Published by Penguin Viking, the book deals with “essays about reading and writing. Essentially, they are reflections of life,” he reveals. But why such a title for a book? “Walking through the book souk in Baghdad, I was taken up by so many well educated middle class people selling books on the pavements. The title comes from one of the essays on the same topic in the book.” The other essays are those published in newspaper columns over the past 12 years. All these ruminations have led to the compilation of literary essays in Bookless...

The Indian literary scene is familiar to Mr Tharoor. He says he knows what is happening on the Indian writing scene. “I keep abreast of the works of Indian authors. I like reading them,” he says. “No, there are no favourites as such,” he says, anticipating the next query.

For someone who loves India in spite of being abroad for such a long time, does Mr Tharoor see himself coming home for good sometime later in his life? He smiles. “At no stage of my life have I been able to say where I will be in the next two years. So who knows?!” But his readers can have a glimpse of him through his writings and his books, which as always throw lights on life from the most unexpected quarters.