The word Londoner is used here a bit carelessly. True, Tharoor was born there, but at the age of 3 or so, his Indian parents took him off to their homeland and he is listed as a citizen of India. Still, he speaks the classy brand of English that non-natives often try to acquire, but seldom manage. In fact, he received most of his education in India and the US.

A precocious lad, Tharoor earned his Ph.D at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts at the tender age of 22 -- having already acquired two master's degrees at this prestigious university, which he attended on a scholarship.

Now, at 46 he rockets into the Annan cabinet and is already mentioned as a potential contender when member states begin casting around for a new UN secretary general, some 5 years down the road -- assuming that the incumbent doesn't seek a third term when he'll have turned 69.

Pre-Tharoor, Richard A. Holbrooke, who was Bill Clinton's UN ambassador, couldn't find enough nasty words to fault the Organization's public information machine. Too much money spent by too many staff for too few results was among the mildest of his complaints. "Swollen mess" was his stronger description of DPI, at his final press conference as a UN delegate. At that time, an underqualified (mediawise) Japanese diplomatic time-server dumped on Annan by Tokyo, which refused to reconsider his nomination -- the man was a former consular colleague of the Crown Princess -- had been doing a fine job of screwing up an often-troubled department, whose mixed record included fewer successes than failures.

Comes smooth Shashi, with his sterling can-do reputation based on years of working closely with Secretary General Annan in peacekeeping, and in various troubleshooting assignments. Not to mention, a sparkling intellect.

The reversal of DPI fortunes was swift as the new man embraced and emphasized the latest communications technologies. The US watched in surprise and quickly decided that it liked what it was seeing. At two subsequent sessions of the UN committee on information, the latest only a few weeks ago, American delegates departed from the caustic former Holbrooke script; they heaped praise on the department and especially on its new, versatile leader and the example being set -- one that a hard-working staff was only too eager to follow.

If the next Secretary General must come from Asia -- as the Asian states insist -- the US, which has the power to veto, wouldn't mind considering Tharoor for the top job, some in the UN community speculate. But, given the longstanding, extreme antipathy between India and Pakistan and the rivalry between their nationals sometimes played out in the UN, this would require a herculean diplomatic effort to calm negative perceptions in Islamabad. (Another talented citizen of the subcontinent, Iqbal Reza from Pakistan, is Annan's chief of staff; and Nitin Desai, from India, is nearing the end of his distinguished stewardship as undersecretary general for economic and social affairs.)

There are not too many published writers in the UN secretariat, although several have tried. The biographer Brian Urquhart, a former undersecretary general, is one who succeeded. Tharoor has six books under his belt, including an award-winning political satire "The Great Indian Novel" that was published in 1989. He has written extensively and amusingly about Bollywood, the money-spinning Bombay-based movie industry which can count on audiences of hundreds of millions for even its most mediocre product. That book itself was turned into a Bollywood movie.

He also writes a regular column for the newspaper The Hindu and contributes to Newsweek International and to the op-ed pages fairly frequently.

Tharoor comes to his new job after considerable preparation, as executive assistant to the Secretary General and, for 3 years, director of communications and special projects in Annan's office. The current director is Edward Mortimer, a former foreign correspondent, columnist and editor at The Times (London) and The Financial Times, who joined Annan's staff initially as his speechwriter. He and Tharoor are close friends.

The new undersecretary general joined the UN system in the secretariat of the High Commissioner for Refugees, in Geneva, and seved with distinction as its representative in Singapore at the height of the Vietnamese refugee crisis -- "boat people," as they were called for the rickety vessels in which they fled their devastated country.

With remarkable prescience, the World Economic Forum several years ago named him a "global leader of tomorrow."