In light of the media coverage of Sunanda Tharoor’s death, the
writer insists that news can be pursued without invading one's
privacy.  Earlier this month Shashi Tharoor’s face was once
again on the front pages of Kerala’s newspapers. He looked
haggard and weary and in his hands was a copper urn containing
the ashes of his wife.  A death is usually made known via sober
obituary columns or by word-of-mouth among friends and
relatives. For the more famous, a piece in the newspapers,
perhaps. But, as we all now know, Sunanda Tharoor’s death
occupied newspaper headlines for days, not just in India but
abroad as well. The fascination was inevitable and all media
outlets were, dare I say, understandably swift in exploiting the
irresistible cocktail offered up by a recipe that included a
high-profile politician, his glamorous wife, her sudden and
mysterious death and the possibility of an extra-marital liaison
rather hysterically advertised by Sunanda herself shortly before
her death.  As a novelist, I would have sh