Many years ago, while travelling on a train to Pune, I started writing a play on Judas, and called it, “The Kiss!” This was before the age of laptops and computers and after writing the title on my pad, looked out of the window, as I normally do to get…
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.
Mr Nice Guy..!
New Zealand cemeteries are very different from the rest of the world. Elsewhere graves lie serene and somber, but in New Zealand, especially those graves of the Islanders, are curiously explicit. As I walked through a graveyard in Auckland, I saw one with a miniature fire truck, another with a…
Take Responsibility, Says Court..!
‘Supreme Court: Kin of Covid victims entitled to compensation’ Indian Express “Why should we take responsibility for an act of god?” ask bewildered leaders. In insurance parlance, Covid-19 is called an ‘act of god’ and payments are dealt with accordingly, but what measures were taken to protect citizens, how quickly…
When We Are Called to Part..!
Five friends! Two, I left at airport gate and watched as they walked to meet their plane, stopping once to give a final wave. Three left with no wave, they could not move their hands, as two went into crematorium fire and one, lowered to earth below. When we are…
WhatsApp Terrorism..!
They all schooled together, grew up as one, spun tops, flew kites, played marbles, and in the playgrounds of school, followed more sophisticated sports like cricket, hockey, football, as seasons went by. They hurt their knees playing kabaddi, fought each other on piggyback, then got up and embraced one another….
A Wave of Sorrow..!
It’s not a second or third wave of the virus, but a wave of sorrow that envelops us today! If you feel sad and depressed right now, and can’t understand why, then join billions of others who feel the same, and why not? Right now, most of us are staring…
Are You Tiptoeing Through Life?
Years ago in school, I was once one of the shyest boys around. Girls teased me no end, and other boys bullied me till one day at the morning assembly, I heard my head master say something that changed my life. “Most people,” he said, “tiptoe through life and finally…
Argument on the Ventilator..!
She lay on the ventilator, as fervent prayers went up from hundreds, in plea chains and waves, outside same hospital, “Save her!” they prayed, and up in heaven God listened to their prayers even as He looked at her, and saw a smile of ecstatic joy on her face. “Oh…
Only a Vada Sambar..!
“A servant who serves excellently from his whole heart with due courage and humility is never a servant, but a master of his work!” ― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah It was an ordinary brown paper packet that arrived with the delivery man. The order was for a plate of vadas, some…
Sunny on the Other Side..!
“They’re frowning down below!” laughed the clouds as they stared back at the jovial sun, who was trying his best to make them hot, but then clouds don’t become hot do they, I mean, have you ever heard of hot clouds? Fluffy clouds maybe! Flurry fluffballs maybe, but hot clouds?…
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.