Shashi Tharoor hires me
By Techgirl

Readers of my blog techgirltalk.blogspot.com known that I started blogging on the Google platform to tell the Indians what their IT/BPO and KPO bosses really feel.  As my Google blog clearly says: “I write about tech for one of India’s leading media houses. My Editor is ‘close friends’ with half the tech moguls, and our advertisement dept is even closer to them. Our Chief Reporter is a true believer who feels it is ‘disloyal’ to publish negative stories about the IT/BPO and KPO sectors. Because of this my close friends in TCS, Infosys, Genpact etc cannot say what they really feel. Their CEO’s ring me at night and pour their heart out. I will use this blog to air their true views.”

Pramod Bhasin has rung me to say how his workers threatened self harm if he every left their BPO.  Jaswant Singh had phoned after his ejection from BJP asking if he could get a job in India’s BPO industry.  Even Narayana Murthy has called me.

But it looks like my satire blog techgirltalk.blogspot was being secretly read by politicians as well.  Shashi Tharoor (child prodigy, young Phd, would be UN Secretary General, Kerala MP and now Minister of State for External Affairs) rang me yesterday requesting that I twitter his ‘real’ thoughts.  The Congress High Command has gently rebuked Shashi Tharoor for Twittering about flying ‘Cattle class’ when every Minister was doing so as part of the austerity drive.  Later, Shashi got a few bad headlines by using Twitter (and a speech) to tell Indians that Gandhiji would have preferred that we work on his birthday which is a public holiday.

Shashi is a subdued man on Twitter these days.  He cannot Twitter his real thoughts and so he has requested that I Twitter what he really feels. Apparently, the Congress Media Liaison office vets his every tweet. Yesterday, we set up Twitter.com/ ShashiTharoorMP.

If you want to know what Shashi Tharoor really feels check out ShashiTharoorMP on Twitter.  And yes you can stop following him on his ‘officially verified’ Twitter account as that is heavily censored these days.

But Shashi has warned me that ‘officially’ he will deny any knowledge of this new Twitter account.  And if Madam asks him, he will look ‘shocked’ that someone has even found him interesting enough to be satirized. 

How will I be paid to Tweet on behalf of Shashi?  Lots of well stocked parties at the embassies and high commissions which work with his Ministry. We journalists are very partial to good wine and 5 course meals.  And if the Tweets help build his profile, then I get a Congress ticket from one of the tech hubs. Sounds like a fair deal to me.

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog
http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com