World lockdowns, and international flight shutdowns have impacted many families across the globe. Many husbands haven’t seen their wives for months, and some mothers and fathers, their children. I’m sure we all wonder how they’ve been coping with this unforeseen separation. Here, my daughter Varuna Clements Thalla, a former TV…
Robert Clements is a journalist and newspaper columnist. With an estimated 6 million readership, his column, Bob’s Banter is published in over 30 newspapers and magazines in nearly every state in India, as well as in the top newspapers of Bangladesh, London and Dubai and is also translated into Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.
What Words Of Comfort Can You Give Them?
This morning just as I heard that someone I knew had passed away because of the deadly virus, I knew that many such deaths would start taking place and those who were left behind and grieving, needed our comfort and solace… What words of comfort can we give them? Click…
Reach Out to the Covid Hit People..!
As more people are falling sick to the stalking virus, I’m beginning to see that sadly a stigma is being cast on them and their families! Is the world actually so cruel? I remember the story of a kid in school, who was vaccinated with a painful injection in the…
This Lockdown, Overlook the Humps..!
Something that’s happening in this lockdown, is that family members, whether couples, siblings, or parents and children, are reacting to faults they are seeing in each other! Lockdown or no lockdown, many of us spend a lot of time scrutinizing other people, searching hard to discover faults in them. It’s…
Be Strong..!
My mother, God bless her soul, always told me I was well loved because I had three mothers! What she meant was that I was loved by not just her but also her two sisters, and I equally loved them back. The last of the sisters passed away a few…
Fair and Lovely..!
With so many protests and debates over colour issues worldwide, corporates and industrial houses are jumping overboard to absolve themselves of colour discrimination, by changing names and titles. The latest, ‘Fair and Lovely, has changed its name to ‘Glow and Lovely!’ And in my vivid imagination I hear a boss…
Daughters..!
And as I opened the papers today, I was startled to see a former Madhya Pradesh minister and Congress leader Jitu Patwari tweeting that the ruling party had given birth to five “daughters”- noteban, GST, inflation, unemployment and recession- in its bid to beget a “son” called development. In other…
Suspended Midair…!
Was sitting in my terrace garden this morning and heard the somewhat irritating sound of crows cawing out loud. Normally this means one of them is injured or there’s a monkey around, and they’re all set to attack the poor fellow. I decided to save the victim or shoo the…
Not Just Cutting Vegetables..!
These thoughts occurred while waiting for someone at a home for the aged a little before the lockdown: ‘As I look up from where I’m sitting, I see the most serious activity going on; a number of old ladies from the same home are involved in cutting vegetables. I think…
Let Me Keep My Dignity..!
Some time ago, I got a call from a neighbour of mine. She was at the bank and sounded quite perturbed, “Bob,” she said, “there’s a poor man outside the bank, bleeding from the leg, can we do something?” A few moments later we loaded the man into my car…
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.