Born in Malayalam, India, 1956, Shashi Tharoor is a Member of the Indian Parliament and a prolific author, columnist, journalist and human rights advocate. Tharoor's career in the United Nations began in 1978 as a staff member of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. Until 1996, he led the team responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. Tharoor has written numerous books in English. Most of his literary creations are centred on Indian themes and they are markedly ‘Indo-nostalgic’. Perhaps his most famous work is The Great Indian Novel, published in 1989, in which he uses the narrative and theme of the famous Indian epic Mahabharata. Tharoor has been a highly-regarded columnist in each of India’s three best-known English-language newspapers. His book reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, among other papers. His latest book is The Hindu Way: An Introduction to Hinduism.