Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor offered prayer at the Shirdi temple

Former Union Minister, Shashi Tharoor, and his friend, Sunanda Pushkar, offered prayers at the famous Sai Baba temple in Shirdi on August 1, 2010. This is Tharoor’s first visit to the Shirdi temple. He tweeted, "Made first visit to Shirdi. Extraordinary temple to Sai baba, who preached Shraddha and Saburi (faith and peace) hundred years back. Sabka malik ek".

The couple also offered prayers at the Shani Shingnapur shrine located in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra. Regarding his visit to Shani Shingnapur, he tweeted, "Wonderful visit 2 (to) open-air temple to Saturn and Shani Shingnapur. Simple ritual in clean, pure surroundings. 1 (One) can nvr (never) know enuf (enough) of our culture,"

Sunanda Pushkar and Tharoor performed ‘abhishek’ at the Shani temple. Regarding his visit, Tharoor told reporters that he had performed the ritual for ‘family peace.’ While performing pooja, Pushkar sat right to Tharoor.

Tharoor who just came out of a divorce with his second wife, Christa Giles, is going to marry Sunanda Pushkar on August 17, 2010 which is the Malayalam New Year’s Day.

The marriage ceremony will take place in Sree Padmanbha Swamy Temple which has been built by royal family of Travancore in Thiruvananthapuram.

Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor got engaged on June 27, 2010 at a ceremony that took place at the luxurious Golden Palms Hotel & Spa located in Bangalore. The hotel is owned by Sanjay Khan, father-in-law of Bollywood superstar, Hrithik Roshan.