Shashi Tharoor spoke in Dubai at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, during a session that was titled A Wonderland of Words. The Literature Festival took place from January 21–27, 2026, at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City. The edition featured over 200 speakers from more than 40 countries, showcasing fiction, non-fiction, Arabic literature, poetry, performances, and discussions.
One of the major highlights of the festival was a memorable session delivered by the Indian politician, former diplomat, writer, and wordsmith Shashi Tharoor. While the festival took place in January, videos from the festival has been recently making the rounds of the internet.