Sunanda Pushkar (27 June 1962 – 17 January 2014) was an Indian-born Canadian businesswoman and the wife of former International diplomat serving under the UN and politician Shashi Tharoor.
She was a sales director in the Dubai-based TECOM Investments, and a co-owner of the India-based Rendezvous Sports World (RSW), a cricket franchise in the Indian Premier League.
Sunanda Pushkar (née Dass) was born on 27 June 1962 in a Kashmiri Pandit family of landlords and army officers native to Bomai, Sopore.
She was the only daughter of Lt Col Pushkar Nath Dass and Jaya Dass.
1983
Her father retired from the army in 1983.
She has two brothers, one of whom works for a global software company in Dubai; the other is in the Indian Army.
1986
She graduated from the Govt women's College in Srinagar, where she studied during 1986–88.
While studying at the Government College for women, where she was the President of the college, she married a fellow hotel management graduate Sanjay Raina.
1988
The couple divorced in 1988.
1989
Subsequently, Sunanda went to Dubai in 1989 and married Sujith Menon in 1991.
1990
The family moved from Bomai to Jammu in 1990, after their house was set on fire by Militants.
Pushkar did her schooling at Convent of Jesus and Mary, Ambala and at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Jhansi.
Impressed by the Canadian healthcare system, she emigrated to Canada in the 1990, as her son needed speech therapy.
According to Sunanda, she became a partner in an IT firm called "Valley Resources" through sweat equity, after a San Francisco-based friend introduced her to the founders.
Subsequently, she became wealthy during the dot-com bubble, managing to buy her own house and a BMW car.
1992
Their son was born in November 1992.
1997
Sunanda was widowed when Sujith Menon died in an accident in 1997.
Sujith returned to India, and died in an accident in Delhi in March 1997.
After Sujith's death she left her four-year-old son with her sister-in-law, and later with her parents.
By the time she brought him back to Dubai, he had developed a communication disorder.
She left Bozell Prime to spend time with her son.
She then went on to open a joint retail business of artificial jewelry in Dubai, called Ravissant Trading.
She spelled her name as "Sue P. Menon" on her business cards, and later, started using "Pushkar" (an alternative spelling of her father's name) as her last name.
According to her, she faced financial troubles, as she had to repay Sujith's debts, support her parents and her brother through engineering college.
2001
The business was impacted by the post-9/11 slowdown and closed in 2001.
After four months of unemployment and financial difficulties, Sunanda did a course in emotional intelligence, and joined a company called Noble House International.
She organised "Human Potential Reengineering" programmes for several banks in Miami, Amsterdam and Geneva.
Sunanda felt that she was not earning enough at Noble House.
2004
In August 2004, she moved to Dubai with a Canadian passport, working as a general manager for Best Homes.
2007
Tharoor had arrived in Dubai in 2007, with his Canadian wife Christa Giles.
2009
In October 2009, she met Shashi Tharoor at a party organised by the billionaire Sunny Varkey.
2010
Sunanda married Shashi Tharoor in 2010, after he was elected to the Indian Parliament.
The couple had a Malayali wedding ceremony in Tharoor's ancestral home at Elavanchery in Kerala, India.
This was the third marriage for both of them.
In India, Sunanda's first job was as the front desk receptionist at the Centaur Lake View hotel in Srinagar, after doing a course in hotel management.
After coming to Dubai.
She started an event management business called Expressions, and became well known for her networking with sponsors and artists for fashion shows.
Her company organised several model shows for product launches, featuring several Indian fashion designers and models, including Hemant Trivedi, Rhea Pillai, Vikram Phadnis and Aishwarya Rai.
Later, she joined Bozell Prime Advertising as a Marketing Manager.
She and her second husband Sujith Menon organised a show, which made a financial loss.
