A "Naan-Violent" Tweet Prompted Shashi Tharoor To "Rice To The Occasion"

Shashi Tharoor's talent for words was nurtured during his time at Delhi's St Stephen's College. The senior Congress leader took a trip down memory lane as he recalled the many hours he spent exchanging witticisms with his college-mates during the early 1970s. What sparked this reminiscing was a pun-filled exchange between three Twitter users, a screenshot of which Mr Tharoor shared on the microblogging platform this morning. 

"If two guys fight over a tandoori naan, is that violence or naan-violence?" read the first "#NaanSenseTweet" from former Managing Director of Twitter and Google, Parminder Singh. 

A response to this tweet was equally amusing. "Naan violence is part of our kulcha," wrote Twitter user Ram Vaidyanathan. "Lassi who wins," a third user wrote, wrapping up the hilarious exchange. 

While sharing a screenshot of the exchange on Twitter, Mr Tharoor compared it to the conversations that Stephanians had in college during the 1970s. "This was exactly what St Stephen's was like when I was there in the early 1970s!" he wrote. "People spent hours in repartee of this nature." Shashi Tharoor, who studied history at the Delhi University college, added that their bon mots were not immortalised on Twitter - which, of course, did not exits in the '70s.  

And his response to the foodie puns? "On this exchange, as a Southie I would rice to the occasion, provided some-bar wasn't there," Mr Tharoor wrote.

This was exactly what St Stephen's was like when I was there in the early 1970s! People spent hours in repartee of this nature. But we didn't have @Twitter to immortalise our bon mots. (On this exchange, as a Southie I would rice to the occasion, provided some-bar wasn't there.) pic.twitter.com/Z4DknwbN4k

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) December 7, 2021

Parminder Singh reacted to the Congress leader's tweet by pointing out that repartees like these were not exclusive to St Stephen's but were rather a Delhi University rasam (again, a pun on the word rasam - which can mean "custom" or denote a spicy South Indian dish.) 

Mr Singh added that he would have loved to spar with Mr Tharoor "idli" - to which the parliamentarian responded: "It's never too lait... but for now yeh coffee hain."

. It's never too lait… but for now yeh coffee hain.

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) December 7, 2021

The wordplay continued in the same vein...

Just the product of an idli mind.

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) December 7, 2021

And speaking of foodie puns, actor Arshad Warsi also amused fans with his tweet on Monday night. "If I eat naan with veg, am I having naan veg," he wondered.

If I eat naan with veg, am I having naan veg ????

— Arshad Warsi (@ArshadWarsi) December 6, 2021

Shashi Tharoor's fondness for rare and obscure words is well-known. Here is a look at some words we learned from the Congress parliamentarian and former diplomat.