By T.J.S. George
Shashi Tharoor seems to be a non-stop writing machine. He is a busy man — Member of Parliament, in-demand public speaker, international traveller and what not. In the midst of all that, he finds the time and the energy to turn out not just any book, but thick volumes full of research and analysis. The latest is typical. Its main title itself suggests a sweeping canvass: "The Battle of Belonging." The subtitle brings out the scope of the extended survey: "On nationalism, patriotism and what it means to be Indian." Handsomely published by Aleph, the book is 408 pages thick, not counting the 25-page long bibliography and a dozen pages of index. How does he achieve this when mundane scribblers like me sweat it out for months to complete a 200-page pretence of a book.
