Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
English — often considered as the most widely spoken language in the world — is full of wonder, wit, and anomalies. Politician, writer, and wordsmith Shashi Tharoor and Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, in conversation with Shrabani Basu, take us on a journey through the curious wonderland of English, unpacking the puzzles of punctuation, the quirks of spelling and grammar, and the layered history of Indian English. With over 130 million speakers, India ranks as the second-largest English-speaking nation, where the language was not only adopted, but got a new voice.
Presented by Dettol Banega Swasth India
Dr. Shashi Tharoor is a fourth-term Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) for Thiruvananthapuram and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs. He is the bestselling author of twenty-six books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and for External Affairs in the Government of India. He has won numerous awards, including the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, Dr. Tharoor was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his book An Era of Darkness.
Shrabani Basu is a Sunday Times best-selling author and journalist. Her books include the critically acclaimed The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer, For King and Another Country, Victoria & Abdul (now a major Oscar-nominated motion picture starring Dame Judi Dench and Ali Fazal) , Spy Princess, and Curry. She is the founder and chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust which campaigned for a memorial for the World War II heroine in London, which was unveiled by Princess Anne in 2012. In 2024, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate for services to Literature (DLitt) by the University of London.
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English — often considered as the most widely spoken language in the world — is full of wonder, wit, and anomalies. Politician, writer, and wordsmith Shashi Tharoor and Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, in conversation with Shrabani Basu, take us on a journey through the curious wonderland of English, unpacking the puzzles of punctuation, the quirks of spelling and grammar, and the layered history of Indian English. With over 130 million speakers, India ranks as the second-largest English-speaking nation, where the language was not only adopted, but got a new voice.
Presented by Dettol Banega Swasth India
Dr. Shashi Tharoor is a fourth-term Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) for Thiruvananthapuram and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs. He is the bestselling author of twenty-six books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and for External Affairs in the Government of India. He has won numerous awards, including the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, Dr. Tharoor was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his book An Era of Darkness.
Shrabani Basu is a Sunday Times best-selling author and journalist. Her books include the critically acclaimed The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer, For King and Another Country, Victoria & Abdul (now a major Oscar-nominated motion picture starring Dame Judi Dench and Ali Fazal) , Spy Princess, and Curry. She is the founder and chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust which campaigned for a memorial for the World War II heroine in London, which was unveiled by Princess Anne in 2012. In 2024, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate for services to Literature (DLitt) by the University of London.
Follow us on –
Website - jlflitfest.org
Facebook - facebook.com/JLFInternational
YouTube - youtube.com/c/jlflitfest
Instagram - instagram.com/jlfinternational
Twitter - twitter.com/JLFLitfest
#shashitharoor #powerofwords #jlflondon
