‘Most flattering image’: Tharoor on his ‘Shakespeare’ photo

New Delhi: Despite the conundrum in the ranks of his party and the flood-like situation in his home state Kerala, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday provided netizens an opportunity to have a good laugh at his expense.

Tharoor shared a photo doing the rounds on social media in which somebody had morphed his face to resemble that of English poet and playwright William Shakespeare!

“The most flattering image going around on WhatsApp today -- amazed that someone thought of making me into Shakespeare and then actually took the trouble to create this! Thanks to whoever did so (though I am completely unworthy of the honour!),” his tweet, in which the morphed photo was also embedded, read.

The most flattering image going around on What’s App today — amazed that someone thought of making me into Shakespeare & then actually took the trouble to create this! Thanks to whoever did so (though i am completely unworthy of the honour!) pic.twitter.com/F0uWV0m7Zw

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 10, 2019

Tharoor’s tweet was quick to lighten the mood on the social media platform and it garnered close to 10 thousand likes and was retweeted more than 800 times.

While Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest contributor to the English language, Tharoor, has often been at the receiving end of many jokes, from his followers and critics alike, for his choice of words in his tweets and speeches that often leaves people baffled and curious at the same time.

Probably the most famous expression by Tharoor was the tweet shared by him in May 2017, using the term ‘Exasperating Farrago of Distortions’ for a journalist whose reporting the Congress lawmaker did not agree with.

In December 2017, he had poked fun at himself by tweeting, “To all the well-meaning folks who send me parodies of my supposed speaking/writing style: The purpose of speaking or writing is to communicate with precision. I choose my words because they are the best ones for the idea I want to convey, not the most obscure or rodomontade ones!”.

Tharoor’s choice of words ranging from ‘puerile’ (silly or immature), ‘lacune’ (an unfilled space), arcana (secrets) and ‘frisson’ (sudden feeling of excitement or fear) amongst others, have left the people in splits.

The seasoned politician is no novice at humour too. The Congress MP has used his skills in the language to advertise his book too. In a tweet back in October 2018 he said “My new book, THE PARADOXICAL PRIME MINISTER, is more than just a 400-page exercise in floccinaucinihilipilification. Pre-order it to find out why.”