This week we present what I hope will become the first of a new tradition, the 'Start-of-the-Year interview'. This is another form of what I call, tongue-in-cheek, ‘The Revenge Interview’.

The guest is free to ask whatever they want and to pursue and persist to whatever extent they wish to do so. There are no bars or limitations whatsoever. Neither the subject nor the duration of the interview have been discussed in advance. It’s conducted by the guest exactly as they want.

The idea is to have good-natured fun and to lampoon and mimic but, if it so develops, there can well be moments of tension, innuendo and, even, of pillorying. The choice is entirely left to the guest.

This year's guest is Congress MP and author Shashi Tharoor.

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