The Extraordinary Life and Death of Sunanda Pushkar

Book excerpt: An extraordinary life. A strange death. The untold story of Sunanda Pushkar. On 17 January 2014, Sunanda Pushkar, businesswoman and wife of writer and politician Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in her hotel suite in New Delhi. Her death was as shocking as it was suspect, spawning many a controversy and complex legal battles. Her life was no less dramatic but far lesser known. A culmination of material drawn from personal archives, numerous interviews and investigation across continents, this riveting biography attempts to answer the question: Who really was Sunanda Pushkar? Was she a social climber hankering after power and fame? Or was she bold and unconventional, achieving success on her own merit only to become a casualty of circumstance? Was she a villain or a victim? Or a bit of both? In search of these answers, Sunanda Mehta, journalist and Pushkar’s former schoolmate, traces her subject’s life from her early days in cantonment towns, to her first two marriages, a largely unknown stint in Canada, her rise as a Dubai businesswoman, and finally her much-publicized years with Tharoor until her controversial death shook the nation. Through the soaring highs and wrecking lows that marked her forty-nine years, Sunanda Pushkar lived with passion, ambition and defiance. This definitive biography is the account of her phenomenal life and its turbulent end.