As my daughter left back for New York last month, my eyes were moist, was this ‘the little girl I carried?’ I wondered, and my mind went back a few years: All you fathers having daughters know that when they want something from dad, they suddenly become all child again….
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.
If Hitler Had a Coach..!
No, not a coach to have taught Hitler to paint better, though I do believe if he’d had one to show him how to paint houses better, he would have been the richest house painter in Austria, and the world would have missed the dastardly deeds of a despicable despot!…
Let’s Go Fly A Kite..!
It was a week after the funeral. She had buried her hard working accountant husband, who had painstakingly worked from morn till sundown, risen from clerk to bank manager, sent two children to college and jobs abroad with the income, and given her a comfortable life style. It was a…
And The Land Goes To..!
Bridges can’t be finished, because they can’t get back the land from squatters, and even railways can’t expand to more tracks, because hutments have taken over railway land even as the authorities argue, whose fault it is: The senior official from the state government and the senior officer from the…
Catch Hold of the Moment
Many people I know put off something that brings them joy, just because they feel they have no time, don’t have it on their schedule or are too rigid to depart from their routine. I thought of all those women on the Titanic who did not eat their dessert after…
Lord, Abide with Me..!
Thank God for hymn writers! In the year gone by I have sought solace from the hymns of yore, playing them again and again, and the hymn I must have sung, listened to and embraced, more than a hundred times was, ‘Abide With Me.’ Fickle are the affections of men…
The Pillion’s Head..!
This morning as I looked out of my window, I saw a scooterist skidding. No pleasant sight as the bike rattled like a helpless animal and the rider fell heavily to the ground. Luckily, he was wearing a helmet, but the box he was carrying in the rear flew in…
Missed Call..!
Trust us for coining words that have no parallel. “Give me a missed call!” I told my American friend as I left him at his hotel. “A what?” “A missed call!” I explained. “What’s a missed call,” he asked still looking perplexed, “Either I call you or I don’t call…
City Gals..!
“You can’t park inside the compound!” Priya stopped backing her car into the vacant space, next to her building and looked at the angry old man who was standing behind, blocking her way, “Who are you?” she asked. “I am the secretary of this society and you are not a…
Just Beyond the Door..!
“Where are we going grandpa?” asked the little fellow as he was all dressed up and ready to go. “To the airport!” said the grandfather, “to welcome your father back.” “Dad!” shouted the little fellow as his father came out of the airport, “Dad, do you enjoy staying in the…
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.