It wasn’t too many years ago, every time the word ‘computers’ was mentioned, government employees would go on strike. Millions of man hours were wasted as clerks continued to painstakingly and laboriously write in ledgers and huge books, what they could have typed and transferred to another department in seconds….
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 Dosa..!
After my morning walk, I sit for an hour on my terrace garden, savoring my pot of delicious coffee. All around me I hear the sounds of birds and squirrels, as the peepul tree towering over me provides a home to them and peace for me. As I sip away,…
Human gods..!
Very often we make a god out of a guru or priest and feel disappointed and even lose our beliefs when they fall. Many, many years ago as a child I used to sit in church and like all youngsters fidget, look around and do everything except listen to the…
If You Think You are Beaten..!
Had visited an art exhibition the other day and as usual stared at all the modern art on the walls without understanding head or tail of what the artist was trying to say. I wandered outside and walked over to a pavement artist; something caught my attention, “How much?” I…
Happy Father’s Day..!
Every morning as I sit in my little garden and ponder on what to write, I look at the little blue collapsible stool on which I place my newspapers and remember my father. Today, on Father’s Day, I specially thought of him, because it was two days before he died…
Enid Blyton and Kipling..!
Racists! That’s what the two have been branded as! Two writers, Enid Blyton and Rudyard Kipling, who shaped our formative years, both in reading and in the unleashing of childhood imagination, and who today, are not there to defend themselves have been flagged as racists by a charity called English…
Hush..!
‘Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature..’ Zhuangzi The lovely, agile and nimble steps of a ballerina as she glides across the stage, the plaintive, doleful strains of a saxophone, the…
Protest is a Right..!
‘Protesting without arms is a fundamental right and not a terrorist activity’ Delhi Hight Court Even as the high court gives citizens of our country the right to protest, I do believe that the greatest gift a leader can gift himself or herself, are people who have the freedom to…
Hey! Let’s Finish the Job..!
Just read that the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani Express would soon be reaching four hours faster! All this by building a wall along the railway tracks between Mumbai and Surat, which would allow the train to travel faster, as it wouldn’t need to slow down for people crossing the tracks. ‘Let’s get…
Brown, Barren, Bruised and Broken..!
There was a brown, barren patch of land behind my home. “It looks like the Sahara Desert!” I used to say as nothing grew there, and then overnight it’s become green. A few drops of rain, a few peals of thunder and the brown earth has yielded to roots that…
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.