Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor often has people reaching for their dictionaries with his use of long and obscure words, but he may have met his match in this teenager from Kerala.
Diya, a student of Class X from Idukki in Kerala, introduced Tharoor to a word that even he had not heard of, NDTV reported.
This happened when the parliamentarian made a surprise appearance during a zoom show on Club FM, a private radio station in Kerala, featuring the teenager.
It was then revealed that Diya had earlier messaged Tharoor on Facebook, asking him to pronounce a super-long word.
Once on the show, Tharoor conceded defeat as Diya pronounced the tongue-twister in one go, without stumbling or pausing for breath.
“Which means?” the parliamentarian asked her, and she responded by saying that it is the name of a fictional food item.
“It’s not a small thing to remember and repeat the word,” Tharoor said. He then congratulated her and added, “Everyone wouldn’t be able to do it. She has memory power. She has the concentration. My advice is learn such long words which you can make use of.”
Tharoor also shared a link to the conversation on Twitter and wrote: “Wonderful story of brilliant 10th-grader Diya, who has mastered tongue-twisting English words I’ve never heard of, & for whom I made a surprise appearance during a @clubfmkerala show on her prowess!”
[Malayalam] Wonderful story of brilliant 10th-grader Diya, who has mastered tongue-twisting English words I’ve never heard of, & for whom I made a surprise appearance during a @clubfmkerala show on her prowess!https://t.co/INEwhtYwtq
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) November 5, 2020