Shashi Tharoor coming to Humanities West

India Rising: Tradition Meets Modernity (Feb. 27-28, 2009) will feature a keynote address by Shashi Tharoor, a world-famous UN diplomat and author. For some interesting insight into Tharoor's background and upbringing, watch this eleven minute interview on YouTube.

Tharoor has written a book called The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone, which directly addresses many of the themes of our program, and which is on our short list of recommended reading for those who would like to do a little homework before attending the program. (If you buy the book through our link to Amazon, Humanities West gets a small share of the price at no extra cost to you.)

In addition, there are two short clips on YouTube that show Tharoor discussing themes from the book. In this first one, he relates an incident that reveals the immense cultural and linguistic diversity of India. In the second one, he uses the example of the cell phone to show how modern technology has directly impacted traditional Indian society.

Based on these clips, I think we are in for a real treat on Friday night, Feb. 27th. Don't miss it!