Of late, priests, godmen, gurus and other religious leaders are showing a sordid side of themselves! Rape, molestations, blackmail, assaults, greed and debauchery seem to be springing from their sacred loins, and seeing this there seems to be a growing disenchantment for all things holy! “If priests are like this,…
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.
Ban the Blanket..!
Horror of horrors! A news item appearing in Indian newspapers sometime ago, mentioned that the blankets offered by the Indian Railways to its passengers for their overnight journeys were washed only once in two months! Which meant, realized horrified passengers that they had slept in the sweat and dirt of…
Busy Making a Billion..!
Spent an evening at the club, with a gentleman who knew one of India’s billionaires when he was coming up, “I knew him when he was struggling,” he said, “And I helped him a bit!” “You must be great friends now!” I said. “I suppose we are!” he said loyally,…
Best Education in the World..!
And as different governments over the years have addressed all the wrong problems in our educational system, I can only liken it to an imaginary minister again focusing on non-issues! “Minister, we are so happy you have been appointed. We have to do something about our educational system!” “Yes, yes,…
It’s Not the Taj..!
As I hear about names of cities being changed left, right and centre I see members of the heritage committee, “This building and this and this and this!” exclaim members of the heritage committee as they walk down the roads of a city anywhere in the country. “But we don’t…
Cunning People in Our World..!
We glory in cunning, but being clever without compassion makes a cheat of you! Quite a few decades ago I moved to the city of Bombay with a few rupees in my pocket and started peddling the product I was selling, from door to door. In one of the homes,…
The Puppets and the Puppeteer..!
“Who told you to put all our savings into that bank?” shouts a distraught wife as she looks at her weeping husband, “It’s collapsed! It’s your fault! We are ruined!” In many homes, it’s either a husband or wife crying out about a bank collapse or very lately the collapse…
Standing Tall On Mount Road..!
I’m in Chennai to speak at a function and as I drive down Mount Road, I know it’s got another name now, but Mount Road it will always remain to me, and as I drove down that long, very busy road that ends at the St Thomas Mount, I saw…
A New Olympic Event..!
Suddenly in Mumbai, the city where I live there’s digging, and digging and digging again, going on at a furious pace. There’s so much of digging that we have become one of the most polluted cities not just in India, but the world. It’s as if there’s a deadline for…
A Broken Plastic Bangle..!
I could feel the tension. The man serving chai at the corner stall looked at his two customers as they drank his tea, and in his eyes was a plea for them to drink faster. He watched them for a moment more as they slowly sipped the piping hot tea…
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.