Got up this morning to a very pleasant day, with my peepul tree leaves back, my birds chirping happily, and the coffee almost perfect, when the wife, a doctor, called out, “Busy today?” “Not really!” I said innocent like, not realizing I was walking into a trap, “Finished all my…
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.
The Lock on her Door..!
The lock hangs heavily on her door! It hangs hushed and still, and yet as I look at it, it’s deathly silence screams accusingly, “She’s gone!” I had not wished her goodbye when I’d left for America. I’d meant to, but whenever I passed her home and peeped in, I…
Jesus, the Master Communicator..!
Today we communicate more than ever before, and through mobile, social media, TV, radio and other ways we are breaking all transmission barriers. But, and, this is a big but, you and I are communicating but are we good communicators? Are you really able to communicate your thoughts? Are you…
One Long, Two Short..!
From my home I can hear in the distance, the trains going by, and then I hear the dreadful sound, the train hooting; one long and two short blasts. Again, one long and two short! I know what grim tidings those hoots bring. It says the train has run over…
Nobody’s Looking At Me Dad..!
This was a TV ad a few years ago: A little girl stares out of the window of an old car, looking lost and lonely, stares forlornly at her father and asks, “Why doesn’t anybody look at me dad?” Dear father is concerned! His heart reaches out to his beloved…
The Law and Us..!
Living in a housing society has it’s upsides and downsides, and somehow with the use of the law and a strict committee, people more or less learn to live with each other. A few months ago, I was told a neighbour was going to join two flats, one upstairs and…
Morning Has Broken..!
The faraway glint of an approaching dawn, softening of black darkness, the first bold enthusiastic shaft of light lighting up a room, herald a new day. And of course, the first caw from an early rising crow, followed by the soft, then louder cacophony of twittering sparrows, all announce to…
Not Just a Curved Mustache..!
Some four years ago, barber shops were full! Everybody, I heard with even a whiff of a mustache was trying to shape it downwards like Wing Commander Abhinandan’s whiskers! Even mummy’s eyebrow pencil disappeared as those without whiskers, used hers to get Abhi’s curved mushy look. “Look at me!” they…
The Reservation Trap..!
Even as I see our prime minister striving hard to place India as a country to be reckoned with, what will cause impediments in his vision, is not a jealous China, nor a rising population, nor any domestic upheaval, but the clamour for reservations. Was listening to a story of…
Civil War at Home..!
Quite often I see family run businesses where the father on paper has passed the mantle onto his son or daughter, but keeps hovering over the company possessively, not wanting to relinquish his authority! This also happens in many homes. The son or daughter feels the father is too old…
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.