57 thoughts on “Shashi Tharoor, minister atwitter”

1. good one old tuber. specially the dig on dearborn.

2. Shashi Tharoor is very witty and quite debonair. He’s also quite vain and narcissistic. He poses quite daintily for this picture, and also, he’s showing off his busy schedule for all his followers. But that being said, he’s pretty sophisticated. PS – I love that he can curse his ex-wife in 2-3 languages and brag about it.

3. He’s much funnier and more articulate than our Tweeting senators. I’ll take him over Chuck Grassley any day.

4. Yeah! Twitterers unite!

5. witty and quite debonair… he’s pretty sophisticated

   I think that India and Kerala are incredibly lucky to have such an energetic and accomplished MP. However, I still can’t get over some of the little things like his ridiculous I-didn’t-go-to-Oxford-but-I-sound-more-British-than-the-Queen accent… but hey, I guess we all our little idiosyncrasies!

6. He is a bit too witty and at ease on Twitter…I don’t like it.

7. @ # 5, He went to St. Stephens college. His accent isn’t a big surprise.

8. also to add to #7–and i mean no disrespect–you would know, if you grew up in bourgeois india (and listened to all india radio in english, or watched doordarshan in the 80s) that there are plenty of people with Tharoor’s accent among those educated in english medium schools (in fact at one time it was considered the “best” indian-english accent many such schools).

9. I meant “in” many such schools.

10. To me, there is nothing more cringe-worthy than an Indian with a faux-British accent. I knew a Queen’s-English-speaking guy who’d say “very well. Carry on then.” or even “good name.” I’d love to tell him that the English-accent is so yesterday. Moreover, nothing good has come out of that country since….welll…Gandhi.

11. @ #10

    My point exactly – people in England haven’t spoken like that since the Victorian Age. I love the ‘Indian-English’ accent (try Jaswant Singh) but Tharoor just grates on me when he says things like ‘wheak’ instead of ‘work’.

    … anyway, this post is about Tharoor, not his accent, and apart from this and his writing I’m a big fan!

12. How would it be a faux-British, if they were educated in schools built by the British and a schools which basically taught that version of English and pronunciation?

    Nothing annoys me more than people claiming “one” single accent is the authentic English accent that should be used in India.

    Should we call Hong-Kong residents who may speak with an accent similar to Brit accent, faux, too?

13. I agree with de-lurker. It would be annoying if it were “faux”, but why would you assume that it is?

14. I am at best neutral towards Twitter. Personally, I don’t want to know so much pointless detail of a person’s daily life, such as “Just used my sparkling new toilet again. Flushes well,” or “Office computer still won’t work … too many bugs..” I DON”T CARE. It is a perfect venue for narcissists who think every single stupid moment of their lives is worthy of announcing to the entire world. It’s not.

15. To me, there is nothing more cringe-worthy than an Indian with a faux-British accent.

    spot-on

16. The American accent is higher in the hierarchy of faux accents practiced by pseud desis. It is also much much more contagious. I have seen cases where it was acquired just by talking to cousins over the telephone. More cringe worthy IMHO.

17. Interesting. Recently this tharoor guy was twitted on the GOI’s immoral backing of the Srilankan goon govt with the UN inquiry.

    A fellow Mallu twitted tharoor on this & he would not respond. Not a single word. Tharoor is nothing but a refined, calculative, elitist hot air bag.

    Bet he didn’t have the time to respond to all the twitts.

    fyi:
    shashi a chicken

18. The American accent is higher in the hierarchy of faux accents practiced by pseud desis

    right-on

19. I am at best neutral towards Twitter. Personally, I don’t want to know so much pointless detail of a person’s daily life, such as “Just used my sparkling new toilet again. Flushes well,” or “Office computer still won’t work … too many bugs..” I DON”T CARE.

    dude! relax. have some papaya and give melvin some credit will you for the fine twitmanship.

    melvinder! you scored a big one here.

20. melvinder! you scored a big one here.

    Thanks, Khoof. Three of those tweets were totally his.

21. Tharoor is the ultimate “clubbable” desi (St. Stephen’s, UN stint, Dubai business connections, well-published), so if he Twitters, the old eggs at the Club had damn well better stop ridiculing Twitter.

22. @Sonia – it’s time to discard those drab sarees, you should wear a nighty to parliament like modern desi women

23. Tharoor is the ultimate “clubbable” desi (St. Stephen’s, UN stint, Dubai business connections, well-published), so if he Twitters, the old eggs at the Club had damn well better stop ridiculing Twitter.

    Tharoor can also be an annoying prick, so should old eggs stop ridiculing annoying pricks?

24. Tharoor can also be an annoying prick, so should old eggs stop ridiculing annoying pricks?

    He’s an annoying prick to you, but then again you’re not “clubbable,” so the question does not arise. Check mate.

25. Melvin! you’re hilarious! loved the @bhupathi yes, I’m more of a “Go Fed” guy than a “Go Nad” guy.

26. 16 · Lupus Solitarius : The American accent is higher in the hierarchy of faux accents practiced by pseud desis. It is also much much more contagious. I have seen cases where it was acquired just by talking to cousins over the telephone. More cringe worthy IMHO.

    Even I noticed this cringe-worthy phenomenon! I’ve seen with my own eyes Desis saying words that were cool several years ago, and saying it with an American accent. This one Indian aunty that I knew would pronounce “fast” the American way, and not as “faast” (like the “o” in “cost”) which is the British/FOB way.

    A faked accent of any kind is bad enough, but between a faux Brit and a faux American, the faux Brit is more cheesy, more…uh…so 40s, and FOBBY. Britain is so yesterday, and their accent isn’t even as good as the American accent. At least we enunciate every consonant in a word. Ask a Brit to pronounce “car”, and they’ll say “caah”. Moreover, the Indians watch more American movies and listen to more american songs and they have more relatives in the States than they do in the UK. Because of all this, they are apparently trying to emulate the British.

    The Indians trying to emulate the faux British accent is so old-fashioned, that it’s like me bringing a top hat and a monocle on one of my hot dates to a downtown Boston night club.

27. I think the whole argument of fake vs. real accents is quite silly. It’s not as if accents are static… for example.. if you know the actress Gillian Anderson.. she lived in the UK until she was 12 or so, them moved to the US… when she is in the US she speaks in an American accent, but if she suddenly hears someone speaking with a British accent she unconsciously switches over. (She had a problem in some movie where she was supposed to have an American accent but the director was British).

    Same goes for any accent. After living in India for a year, I (unconsciously) picked up certain pronunciations, slang, and speech patterns of Indian English… now, if I am talking on the phone to an Indian in English, I will hear my pronunciation change automatically.

    And no doubt there is most certainly an Indian English accent, separate and identifiable from an American English, Australian English, British English, Canadian English, New Zealand English (etc) accent.

    But then again, when I was teaching English in New Delhi, there was always the question of British or American pronunciation, slang, etc? Where I worked chose to use American English as it’s base, but we also added in notes about differences in pronunciation as well. And for students, I think it is good for them to be exposed to different kinds of language… I always love the expression on my students face when I asked them if they got to class in an auto (American pronunciation aw-do)… I get blank stares, until I explain that Americans often pronounce there t sounds as d’s (little= liddle).

    But in the end, it is up to the individual student how there English accent with lean. It also depends on why they are learning it and who they need to talk to. If they are a business man who talks mostly with American companies… then it makes sense to choose an American accent to focus on. If you are just going to be talking to Indians, then it probably doesn’t matter if you can pronounce your ‘th’, ‘sh’ or ‘z’s clearly, since you will still be understood by most other Indians anyways. Dats a jebra yaar!

    It’s the same when I learned Hindi. After I began studying Hindi, I was first in Bihar, and learned a lot with a Bihar accent (which made my Hindi teacher laugh when I started grad school) I then proceeded to study Hindi in Jaipur, but aware of the whole accent issues, I tended to strive for a very ‘correct and proper/universal’ pronunciation rather than a typical Rajasthani one. Why? Mainly coz more people will be able to understand me, and because having a an accent from a certain pradesh may not be what people expect from an American. And of course, as much as i strive for correct pronunciation, my Hindi is still influences by my mother tongue.

    So anyways, like I said, accents are not always conscious, they are not static, and what accent people work toward probably has to do with the context they need to/want to use it in. If this political didn’t pick an extreme British accent, he would have to ‘pick’ some other accent anyways. So which one is ‘real’ anyways?

28. What provides me with great happiness when talking to people with fake accents is when they slip up and their own native accent is briefly and delightfully exposed. One of my mother’s colleagues had spent some time in ol’ Blighty and spoke with a ridiculously fake plummy English accent, but often his Delhi/Punjabi accent would spill out. He would often open his sentence with “When I was in Laandon”. I often steered our conversation to donkeys, which he would pronounce “Dunkey”. And I once caught him talking about total cha-os in his department. I often forgive the old timers their faux Brit accents though, because when they were growing up it was widely considered the ideal accent, and they were told to listen to the BBC to improve their pronounciation. As for the 1st Gen Desis who pick up accents, I have observed that it mainly happens to people who spoke little English back home, and thus are relatively clean slates.

29. I second LinZi.

    People don’t often consciously pick an accent. It depends on who they are interacting with.

30. I third LinZi.

    And as for all the knocking down the Brit accent—yeah, that’s why women swoom over the Brit accent even in America. What’s with all the dissing on accents? Seriously.

    Again, the Indians are influenced by a lot of different factors. If they went to school in elite Indian schools, if they grew up listening to BBC, if they have British or American (or Aussie, NZ, Canadian, etc) relatives, etc etc.

    They all affect one’s accent.

31. Oh, and another thing. I find the “FOB” condescending and derogatory. Even the Indians born and raised in India with an “Indian accent” pronounce things the way Boston Mahesh describes as “British/FOB.” Nothing “FOB” about either of those accents, neither is it a nice term. And again, since the British/FOB was merged, I will again add that that the British accent is always a hit with the females, so the pronunciation isn’t all too bad, is it?

32. 31 · de-lurker on June 13, 2009 05:39 PM · Direct link

    Oh, and another thing. I find the “FOB” condescending and deragotory. Even the Indians born and raised in India with an “Indian accent” pronounce things the way Boston Mahesh describes as “British/FOB.” Nothing “FOB” about either of those accents, neither is it a nice term. And again, since the British/FOB was merged, I will again add that that the British accent is always a hit with the females, so the pronunciation isn’t all too bad, is it?

    I was a silly goose. Please pahdon me for me follies. Very well, carry on then.

33. When i moved to the States to go to Grad school, i was hanging out with a group of French exchange students whose English was poor (but better than my non-existent French), and ended up speaking a sort of neutral indian english with a slight french accent whenever i was around them. I would talk to ppl at the bars with the same accent cos I was with them, and it may have actually gotten me laid. Even after they left, for some reason I continued speaking in the same accent at bars, cos it was an association for me. American Bar = Slight French accent, until someone started speaking to me in French, and I realized how ridiculous it was.

    In my attempt to NOT acquire an American accent, I emphasized the aaa inflections (fast) which for some reason has given it a Brit slant. Over the years, the way I speak has turned into a hodgepodge of Indian, Brit, American (urban, mid western, some southernisms) accents and slang, which is mine.

    I don’t know why ppl get their panties in a twist over Indian English accents, and what’s fake or authentic. Some sort of class thing going on here, which is of course expected from Indians and Indian Americans. Sadly, English continues to be used as a barometer for cultural capital or cool quotient an Indian has amassed. The funniest thing is to hear ppl from Bombay with their very thick Bombay English accents make fun of other Indian English accents, as though they don’t have one, or that theirs is some sort of epitome of Indian English. Same for the Stephenites, and Xavierites.

    When you speak an Indian language, you speak in the accent/dialect of the area you live in, and if you move to a different region that speaks the same language, it is almost expected that you acquire that accent. It is very important in India TO SOUND LIKE a local no matter where you live. Try catching an auto or taxi at a railway station/bus terminal, and try different accents of the local language, and you will see what I mean. If you’re not a local, you will get taken for a ride, are more likely to be harassed by cops for minor traffic violations, etc.

    Why is English any different? Isn’t it an Indian language, since India has made it her official language?

    Do you find it cringe-worthy when Americans from the south lose their accents when they move to the mid-west, or east cos they don’t want to be made fun of, or perceived as slow or stupid? Does the transformation happen overnight? Have you met someone during the initial stages of the metamorphosis, and see their southernisms creep into speech? Does it make you cringe when blacks speak the corporate white American accent? Are they selling out, “acting white”, and not being authentic coz they say “ask” and not “aks”?

    Pull those sticks out of ur arses, and give ppl the benefit of the doubt. And if someone’s faking an accent, cos they think it will serve them better, let ’em be. Of course, you are of absolute moral character, and beyond reproach cos you have never done anything “inauthentic” to get some advantage in life.

    I can’t wait to see ya’ll trippin over urself to speak Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent. That’s the panty dropper of the future.

34. Wonder how cringe-worthy Boston Mahesh’s accent is he speaks in Hindi/Tamil or whatever it is his FOB parents taught him.

35. Enough of this pointless bickering. Why don’t you Yanks amuse us by saying, Aluminium?

36. how disgusting I never knew people can lower to such levels

37. rob isn’t wrong. Second hand information from Tharoor’s Stephen’s buddies and IFS cohorts indicates that not only is Tharoor clubbable, he is also eminently deserving of clubbing.

38. Man, I always hated twitter and thought nothing good could come of it and this just reinforces my view. Who would want to inflict the inane ramblings of this tosspot on themselves 24-7?

39. but then again you’re not “clubbable,”

    Yes, I pride myself on being a brown woman who despises smug anglophiles’ boorish accounts of encounters with high-end prostitutes in third world countries or repressive regimes. While paying for sex or companionship is not prima facie problematic, paying for sex in places where women have scant recourse to law is not defensible. And to think you bust out James Mill.

40. This post is hilarious!

    Re the accent debate: maybe the issue is not so much one of ‘fake’ accents, but rather of facility/ease of use and level of pretension. Used to be that a put-on American accent was odd and jarring; these days, a generation raised on Friends that may never have set foot in the US speaks a version of it fairly naturally. As for the Brit accent, there is a bit of pretension, and also — on this blog — probably a lot of visceral Yank reactions against the old metropole. So be it, but there is something nice about the precision with which a certain generation of Indians/Pakistanis/Sri Lankans speak English. If only they could get over the PG Wodehouse thing.

41. Somewhere East, I think pretension is the key issue regarding fake accents. If you have picked up an accent the natural way, i.e living or studying in a place where that accent is prevalent, and you are not pretending to be someone you are not, it comes off quite effortlessly and naturally. There are many educated Indians who speak English with a neutral accent quite close to standard BBC. However, there are others, like Salman Khan and perhaps Mr Tharoor, who stretch things a bit. About PG Wodehouse- It is a truly fascinating phenomenon. I was astonished to find, when I first moved to the UK, that Mr Wodehouse’s popularity in India far exceeds that in England. I had read all the Jeeves and Wooster books by the time I was 16. Here, I have struggled to find people of my generation who have read any.

    Overall, I feel that if one is desperate to cultivate an accent, he should go for the Brit one. It sounds classier.

42. LS- “If you have picked up an accent the natural way, i.e living or studying in a place where that accent is prevalent, and you are not pretending to be someone you are not, it comes off quite effortlessly and naturally.”

    I think my point with language learning in India, is that, the ‘natural way’ and or ‘neutral accent’ can be much debated. I taught many student at inglinua who enjoyed my crazy american accent, but of course also picked up some pronunciation from me the natural way… yet if that same guy is heard speaking like that on the street.. people might think “oh! ha! He is faking an american accent… how could HE know an american?”

    I think this argument you guys are having is more about who is ALLOWED to use what accent, rather than and neutral/natural jazz. I mean which accent is neutral? To me, an American New England Accent is neutral, because that is where I grew up. So, for example, if I had grown up in UP, and take English classes, which english accent will be neutral? How about Mumbai? Kolkatta? Kerala? Bihar?

    How does one “naturally” pick up a particular pronunciation anyways? Do you know how many hours I had to spend to pronunce things like “sari” or “bara” right?

    Anyways.. gotta run…

43. I used to get all uppity about people acquiring “fake” accents when I was, like, 15, but grew out of it. Accents are developed for a variety of purposes from osmosis to inculcation to conscious effort, and as long as it isn’t used as an indicator of superiority, I really don’t see why it’s such a big deal.

44. yet if that same guy is heard speaking like that on the street.. people might think “oh! ha! He is faking an american accent… how could HE know an american?”

    Linzi, if I met that guy on the street, I would probably give him the benefit of the doubt, and think:

    A. He might be an actual ABD B. He might have lived in America for some time/ learnt his language from an American teacher/ school. Nobody, except elitist snobs ridicule an Indian who speaks English with a regional accent.Even Indians who learn their English in good public schools have a flavour of their region in their accents. What is ridiculous is the guy who has never been out of India who decides to speak to me in a consciously acquired Oxford accent, to convey a false impression of his background. Sadly, even now a firang accent is mistakenly believed by many to be a mark of superior education. It is almost as silly as the DU goths that you see buying jewellery in Sarojini Nagar market, sweating like dogs in their leathers and the 45 degree heat.

    as long as it isn’t used as an indicator of superiority, I really don’t see why it’s such a big deal.

    It’s not a big deal.It can actually can be pretty entertaining.

45. I can’t wait to see ya’ll trippin over urself to speak Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent. That’s the panty dropper of the future.

    Given the events of these past few months, now might be a bad time to bring this up. Personally, I think Aussie accents are irresistable (cf. : ‘Chase’ on House).

46. It is almost as silly as the DU goths that you see buying jewellery in Sarojini Nagar market, sweating like dogs in their leathers and the 45 degree heat.

    I am in DU right now; I’m tempted to venture out and see this spectacle for myself. Thanks for alerting me. Here I was about to go take boring pictures of the Red Fort and Rajghat.

47. He actually said “gonad” and nary a comment on that here? For shame!

48. Only here can a harmless post labelled humor can become a bitchfest about “FOB” and their accents.

49. In the lonely backwaters of St. Stephen’s exist a misunderstood and victimized tribe known as “sciencees” who would be very hurt by some of these comments.

50. Here I was about to go take boring pictures of the Red Fort and Rajghat.

    Is that a popular pastime these days? My sister and her friends have been doing that too..