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October 10, 2008

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Umm...BONKERS!!!

My experience of being Dr. Shashi Tharoor's Legislative Assistant

I worked with Dr. Shashi Tharoor as his Legislative Assistant in the year 2012-2013. A Legislative Assistant to a Member of Parliament (a more commonly used acronym would be LAMP) is typically a young Indian with a keen interest in Public Policy and Government Legislation. An initiative of PRS Legislative Research, the LAMP Fellowship places fellows with Members of Parliament across different parties. A fellow’s individual political ideology or preference is not taken into account when they are placed with Members of Parliament. I first met Dr. Tharoor at his office in Lodhi Estate. Priya Thachadi Soman, who was Manager of the LAMP fellows last year, accompanied me there. I remember Dr. Tharoor looking at my CV and saying, “My dear, you have excellent credentials. Keep it up.” I was extremely nervous when I had walked into the office with Priya, and his assuring words assuaged my fears. In my own mind, I knew I would enjoy working with Dr. Tharoor. I had a keen interest in w...

What is the one thing that would surprise your readers about living in Calcutta?

Good question, and a very timely one indeed. When I first started writing for newspapers and magazines, I was addressing an audience that was familiar with my own way of life. When I started writing for Matador though (and that's my only international publication credit to date), I realised that I had the added responsibility of explaining certain things- to clarify and elaborate on things which would otherwise have been easily understood by the people who were (or are) reading. However, what increasingly disturbed me was that there was a large body of literature that was pandering to stereotypes. This made it even more important for me to write and tell my own story. These stereotypes have been instrumental in creating a certain notion of Calcutta in readers' minds. In travel writing, I often come across stories about how poor or how dirty Calcutta is. While there is no denying that there exists poverty and dirt in the city, I feel alarmed at the way it is sensationalised ...

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