For many years I had a weekly column which dealt with the origin of our English words! More often than not, we speak this wonderful language, without really checking from where some of the words originally originated. The field dealing with the origin of words is Etymology. Today I thought…
When You Exaggerate, You Lie..!
“….to stretch the truth is to tell a lie..” A man entered a dentist’s clinic and sat down to have his teeth fixed. “I can feel a huge cavity with my tongue,” he said. The dentist examined the man’s teeth and said, “It’ll only be a small filling.” “But why…
Say Yes, to No..!
Something that happens to many writers is to discuss a plot or story line, before they’ve written it. The first thing that happens in such a discussion is that you have given the other person leave to shoot down something brilliant, before it has taken shape on paper. Also you…
Toughening Foreign Investors..!
“Make in India!” We cry zealously from our rooftops and WhatsApp groups as national leaders spend precious time and tax payers money going from country to country wooing their industrialists to open their factories, offices and make huge investments here in our country. What they find when they do arrive…
Good People and Tough Times..!
A butcher is really surprised to see a dog coming inside his shop. He shoos him away. But later, the dog is back, so he goes over to the dog and notices it has a note in its mouth. It reads, “Can I have 12 sausages and a leg of…
The Old Man and I..!
An old man was staring at me, and I stared back at him, “Something wrong with you?” I asked angrily. “Something wrong with you!” he also said with anger in his voice. “No, there’s something wrong with you!” I said. “No, there’s something wrong with you,” he repeated. I stared…
Godmen and the Honeytrap..!
“How could he?” we shout hysterically when we find that a godman or a man of God, has fallen into a honeytrap! “He’s nearly a god!” some say. “He is one!” say others, and therein lies the problem. Many years ago, an old, wise, ninety- year old lady stopped me…
Blah! Blah! Blah..!
“What’s that noise?” my wife asked, one holiday, sitting at home. I listened. It was a low far off rumble, and as you listened it grew louder and louder and became increasingly deafening. And then enlightenment came, “Its people talking!” I exclaimed. “It’s a holiday and it’s the sound of…
Hearts On Fire..!
A few years ago I was asked if I’d teach the art of public speaking to some people from an economically poor background. That day, I looked at a motley set of people and as I began to speak my heart sank; they looked anything but people who would one…
The God of My Dreams..!
It was while visiting my old choir friends last month, I remembered this incident many years ago: “Sing the solo Bob!” the then conductor had asked me. “No,” I whispered, “I just want to sit in the choir pew I sat in many decades ago, and thank the God of…
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.