The road runs wide through the extended city of Greater Mumbai, till, just before it enters the same city, it narrows into a street, meanders and twists reluctantly past posh homes, leaning balconies, where liveried residents, inside air-conditioned flats grimace disdainfully as they peer at traffic jams below, causing exhaust…
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.
Dirt On Your Finger..!
An item in the newspaper had me sadly amused. A lady doctor who runs a pain clinic, told the press how she saw a destitute woman bleeding profusely on the pavement outside her gym. “She was bleeding profusely, it was all over the pavement and flowing onto the road. I…
Singing A State Anthem..!
With ‘son’s of the soil’ not meaning you are an Indian, but giving you certain privileges only if you belong to that particular state, I realized most states are thinking they are nations by themselves. I imagined, the cultural chief of a state department smiling to glory and whistling a…
Best Measuring Instruments In the World..!
Have always been puzzled how the government knows when a loudspeaker is too loud or a plastic bag too thick, so since the government is now hellbent on enforcing the plastic ban I thought I’d check the instruments issued to measure the thickness of plastic bags. I met a municipal…
Using The Bathtub Again..!
Over three decades ago I installed a bathtub at home, and with bubble bath suds sent from the US by my mother I enjoyed the relaxation it gave my tired body, and quite often read a book after work while soaking in the comfort giving warmth. It was a luxury…
It’s Two Men, No, One..!
Quite often some public figure like Trump or many in our own country caught in the public glare while having a rollicking time with someone other than their wife, exclaim, “Leave my private life alone!” What they mean is that they’ve got two lives, one for the public eye and…
Battle of the Extra Pappadam..!
It was not joyful drumbeats and rhythmic cymbals at the wedding in Alappuzha district in Kerala, no, t’was the sound of huge cooking vessels, dishes, water kettles and serving spoons being brandished and hurled in the battle for the extra pappadam! And at a celebration, generally one of happiness and…
Take Your Eyes Off the Old..!
Leaving your comfort zone is very difficult and sometimes painful. In my book, DARE, I have a chapter, “Dare to leave your comfort zone” but today I’m not going to quote from my book, but from a story, possibly a true one, written by Katherina Seidler: ‘The waves were rhythmically…
Everyone Has A Price..!
A few years ago an acquaintance of mine called me and talked about some work he wanted done with a religious organization, “ Is it all above board?” I asked suspiciously. “Maybe a few things are a little irregular here and there,” he admitted, “but then a little greasing of…
Your Little Girl..!
Very often I sit at home and watch a good Hindi movie. I find nothing has changed in the past few decades; in all the movies the father may be a strict man, maybe a shrewd businessman, maybe hard hearted and tight fisted, but nearly always spoils his daughter. However…
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.