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" A weak, insecure nation needs sporting heroes, players larger than life on the cricketing field, who can transcend the limitations of their country and team. "
Shashi Tharoor
Life
Team
Country
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" I returned to India after long years of international service, because I had always cherished the desire to make a difference in my own country. "
Shashi Tharoor
Long
Make A Difference
Service
" The Beijing Olympics were an exercise in Chinese soft power. Americans have the 'Voice of America' and the Fulbright scholarships. But, the fact is, in fact, that probably Hollywood and MTV and McDonalds have done more for American soft power around the world than any specifically government activity. "
Shashi Tharoor
America
Power
World
" We've gone from the image of India as land of fakirs lying on beds of nails, and snake charmers with the Indian rope trick, to the image of India as a land of mathematical geniuses, computer wizards, software gurus. "
Shashi Tharoor
Lying
Land
India
" There was a time when bright people had few prospects for higher education and good jobs here. But that is changing. India is no longer seen as an undesirable place to work or pursue research. "
Shashi Tharoor
Time
Work
People
" A witticism in an airport security line is like a Swiss tap - turn it on, and you instantly find yourself in hot water. "
Shashi Tharoor
Water
Hot
Yourself
" Five decades ago, as India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, began visibly ailing, the nation and the world were consumed by the question: 'After Nehru, who?' The inexpressible fear lay in the subtext to the question: 'After Nehru, what?' "
Shashi Tharoor
World
Question
Nation
" Above all, Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire' is the work of an artist at the peak of his powers. India is his palette, and Mumbai - that teeming 'maximum city', with 19 million strivers on the make, jostling, scheming, struggling and killing for success - is his brush. "
Shashi Tharoor
Artist
City
Work
" As an Indian, and now as a politician and a government minister, I've become rather concerned about the hype we're hearing about our own country, all this talk about India becoming a world leader, even the next superpower. "
Shashi Tharoor
Country
Leader
Talk
" The U.N. guards the vital principles entrenched in its charter, notably the sovereign equality of states and the inadmissibility of interference in their internal affairs. It is precisely because the U.N. is the chief guardian of both these sacrosanct principles that it alone is allowed to approve derogations from them. "
Shashi Tharoor
Alone
Principles
Because
" If China wants to build a new six-lane expressway, it can bulldoze its way past any number of villages in its path; in India, if you want to widen a two-lane road, you could be tied up in court for a dozen years over compensation entitlements. "
Shashi Tharoor
Path
Build
India
" Global challenges also require global solutions, and few indeed are the situations in which the United States or any other country can act completely alone. "
Shashi Tharoor
Solutions
Challenges
Alone
" I am proud to represent the capital of Kerala, a state that in so many ways is a trailblazer for India's progress, though in other respects it seems to have been left behind in the race for 21st century development. "
Shashi Tharoor
I Am
Proud
Progress
" I'm not a techno-determinist. I believe we need to improve our existing human resources, and technology can only be a complement. "
Shashi Tharoor
Need
Technology
I Believe
" Whereas China has set about systematically striving for Olympic success since it re-entered global competition after years of isolation, India has remained complacent about its lack of sporting prowess. "
Shashi Tharoor
Success
Isolation
India
" I don't go by my caste, creed or religion. My works speak for me. "
Shashi Tharoor
Caste
Speak
Religion
" The closest Indian analogy to the position of black Americans is that of the Dalits - formerly called 'Untouchables,' the outcastes who for millennia suffered humiliating discrimination and oppression. "
Shashi Tharoor
Oppression
Discrimination
Black
" The episode of the 'shoe bomber,' Richard Reid, has suddenly meant more feet being bared at airports than at the average Hindu temple. My solution has been to replace my customary lace-up Oxfords with a pair of slip-on loafers when I fly. Generals are always fighting the last war, and security screeners are the same. "
Shashi Tharoor
War
Shoe
Fighting
" The steep decline in America's image and standing after 9/11 is a direct reflection of global distaste for the instruments of American hard power: the Iraq invasion, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, torture, rendition, Blackwater's killings of Iraqi civilians. "
Shashi Tharoor
Power
Reflection
America
" In China, national priorities are established by the Government and then funded by the state; in India, priorities emerge from seemingly endless discussions and arguments amongst myriad interests, and funds have to be found where they might. "
Shashi Tharoor
India
China
Priorities
" Among the many international consequences of Barack Obama's stunning victory in the United States is worldwide introspection about whether such a breakthrough could happen elsewhere. Could a person of color win power in other white-majority countries? "
Shashi Tharoor
Power
Win
Victory
" The Chinese, as befits a Communist autocracy, approached the task of dominating the Olympics with top-down military discipline. "
Shashi Tharoor
Task
Communist
Discipline
" Malaysians talk with Mauritians, Arabs with Australians, South Africans with Sri Lankans, and Iranians with Indonesians. The Indian Ocean serves as both a sea separating them and a bridge linking them together. "
Shashi Tharoor
Them
Talk
Bridge
" The notion of 'world leadership' is a curiously archaic one. The very phrase is redolent of Kipling ballads and James Bondian adventures. What makes a country a world leader? Is it population, in which case India is on course to top the charts, overtaking China as the world's most populous country by 2034? "
Shashi Tharoor
Leader
World
Top
" Foreigners have a complex set of associations in their minds when they think of America - from Iraq to 9/11, certainly, but also from Coke to jeans. It is entirely possible for people around the world to love American products, American books, American movies, American music, and dislike the policies of the government of America. "
Shashi Tharoor
Government
Love
Music
" The casting of 'Slumdog Millionaire' is a dream. Anil Kapoor, as the sleazy TV host, diamonds winking in his earlobes, has never been better; the quietly understated Irrfan Khan turns in another bravura performance as the police inspector whose questioning brings out Jamal's story. "
Shashi Tharoor
Police
Diamonds
Story
" When I grew up in India, telephones were a rarity. In fact, they were so rare that elected members of Parliament had the right to allocate 15 telephone lines as a favor to those they deemed worthy. If you were lucky enough to be a wealthy businessman or an influential journalist, or a doctor or something, you might have a telephone. "
Shashi Tharoor
India
You
Right
" Though the euphoria surrounding Barack Obama's election last week as President-elect has not yet begun to subside, it is already time to recognise that the most important challenge facing the next U.S. president is to restore America's standing in the eyes of the world. "
Shashi Tharoor
Election
World
Challenge
" Going abroad to study as a teenager, and joining the United Nations at 22, confirmed my ease with the world of the frequent flyer. I saw the average airport terminal as a familiar haven, like a friend's sitting room. But 9/11 changed all that. "
Shashi Tharoor
Friend
Sitting
Study
" I returned to India because I believe in an India of honesty and hard work, not of corruption and crookedness. I believe in an India of openness and straightforwardness, not of hypocrisy and double-dealing. I believe in an India where opportunities are available to all, and not just to a chosen few. "
Shashi Tharoor
Work
Opportunities
Honesty
" I believe in an India of pluralism and diversity, not of religious bigotry and caste politics. I believe in an India that is secure in itself and confident of its place in the world, an India that is a proud example of tolerance, freedom and hope for the downtrodden. "
Shashi Tharoor
Hope
Freedom
Diversity