collection Swimmer Among The Stars. Tilottama is currently a professor of humanities at New York University. Tharoor and Tilottama were divorced at some point. In 2007, Tharoor married Christa Giles, a Canadian diplomat working at the United Nations. This marriage was short-lived and childless. Tharoor next married Dubai-based businesswoman Sunanda Pushkar at his ancestral home in Elavanchery village in Kerala's Palakkad district on 22 August 2010. He became her third husband, and step-father to her son Shiv Menon, born of a previous marriage. On 17 January 2014, Pushkar (aged 51) died at The Leela Hotel in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, under mysterious circumstances. In May 2018, Tharoor was charged with encouraging the suicide of his wife and marital cruelty under sections 306 and 498A of the Indian Penal Code. On 18 August 2021, a court in Delhi discharged Tharoor from all the charges. Tharoor is a vegetarian and he "abhors the idea of consuming the corpses of animals," although he claimed that he does not have a problem with those who do. He has stated that he is "very proud of being a Hindu" and that he's a "worshipping" and "believing Hindu". Tharoor also claims to have read a "fair amount" of the Upanishads. In April 2019, Tharoor had an accident when praying during a Thulabharam ritual at a temple in Thiruvananthapuram. After being discharged, he sought a probe by the government into the incident. His mother-tongue is Malayalam. Service and philanthropy Shashi Tharoor was one of the first nine celebrities nominated in 2014 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spread awareness regarding cleanliness, hygiene and good sanitation and make Swachh Bharat Mission a people's movement. He responded by cleaning the Vizhinjam port on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram. Advisor Currently, he is also on the Board of Advisors of India's International Movement to Unite Nations (I.I.M.U.N.). Honours and awards 1976 – Rajika Kripalani Young Journalist Award for the Best Indian Journalist under 30. 1990 – Federation of Indian Publishers' Hindustan Times Literary Award for the Best Book of the Year for The Great Indian Novel. 1991 – Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best Book of the Year in the Eurasian Region, for The Great Indian Novel 1998 – Excelsior Award for excellence in literature, Association of Indians in America (AIA) and the Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP). 1998 – Global Leader of Tomorrow, World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland 2004