As I walk through New York, I notice the dogs. They stride along the pavements, chests puffed out, tails swinging like they pay property tax. Their expressions say, ‘look at where we live. Look at our skyline. Look at the Brooklyn Bridge. Look at traffic that actually respects lanes. Look…
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.
Learn to Repair, Not Replace..!
My first car was a 1959 Fiat. When I bought it, it was already old enough to qualify for senior citizen benefits. I was in my late twenties and felt like royalty. A king does not question the age of his chariot. He only enjoys the fact that it moves,…
Clapping for Scraps and Titbits..!
I must confess, the headline made me pause. It announced with great fanfare that Indians will no longer need a transit visa while changing flights in Germany. No more paperwork if your aircraft stops at Frankfurt or Munich and you merely walk from one gate to another. This was described…
How Beautiful, the Snow..!
I watch from my window in the Pocono Mountains as the snow begins its slow descent. It does not fall. It performs. Each flake arrives like a well-rehearsed dancer, light on its feet, floating with confidence, absolutely certain it will be admired. And it is. Oh yes, it is. Snow…
Shutting Down a City..!
A political leader and Rajya Sabha member from Mumbai has proudly announced that his party can still shut down Mumbai in ten minutes. One wonders what exactly is being boasted about here. Mumbai is not a toy city, nor a private estate. It is a living, breathing organism of millions…
Let Your Yay be Yay..!
How often we swear. Not just casually, but dramatically. On our mother’s grave. On our own life. And when all else fails, on the heads of our children. It is said with such confidence that even the ceiling fan pauses to listen. Yet somehow, miraculously, the promise still manages to…
Honour and Monkeys..!
In the last two centuries, more people have died due to wars than at any other time in recorded history. Technology has advanced, education has spread, and yet humanity seems to have become more efficient at killing itself. This contradiction demands reflection. I believe the reason lies not merely in…
It Won’t Stop at 69..!
Sixty-nine candidates elected unopposed! Just like that. No ballot papers warmed by human fingers. No queues outside schools. No indelible ink on proud index fingers. Democracy, apparently, decided to take the day off. In the Maharashtra municipal elections, sixty- eight of those unopposed seats quietly slipped into the pocket of…
Sleepless World Leaders..!
World leaders, ladies and gentlemen, have officially stopped sleeping. Not because of climate change or inflation, but because sleep has become geopolitically unsafe. Ever since one Latin American leader was escorted from his bed to New York faster than a room service order, world leaders have begun to view bedrooms…
You Wanted His Blessings Sir?
Since you visited a church sir, I suppose you went looking for blessings. That cathedral is grand enough to give that impression. But here is the inconvenient truth sir. God’s blessings are not dispensed like prasad after a brief appearance. They follow obedience not optics. There are no shortcuts through…
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.