What troubles me today is watching highly educated uncles and aunties forwarding messages with the same enthusiasm with which they once forwarded marriage proposals and birthday greetings for their children. Take for example the recent message doing its grand parade on WhatsApp. It shows our foreign minister apparently shouting at…
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.
Burning Bibles and Crosses..!
Very often we hear the news of some church vandalised, the altar desecrated, pews overturned and maybe Bibles burnt. Immediately there is a hue and a cry and the noise is as if Christ is being crucified again. There is outrage from the pulpit. There are processions on the street….
Intellectuals as Terrorists..!
I blinked twice when I read what the Delhi police told the Supreme Court. They said that sometimes intellectuals are more dangerous than a terrorist. Was this the voice of a non-intellectual thinker because it was a terrible statement. One of the first signs that a nation is toddling towards…
A Commode Made of Gold..!
At a Sotheby’s auction in New York, a golden commode was sold for twelve point one million dollars. Yes, you read that right. Not a diamond. Not a painting. Not even a sculpture made by a genius who starved for his art. A toilet commode. As I heard the news,…
The Man on the Empty Bench..!
When Ashton my grandson pointed out the empty bench while we were on the quaint train near the Poconos mountains, I could not help wondering about the countless stories it must have held. And today I decided I would tell the twins just one. Not an old couple waving at…
The Suicide Bomber’s Terrible Miscalculation..!
Somewhere in a cramped room with a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, a young man sits hunched over, clutching an object he believes will make him a hero. His eyes burn with a strange fire, the fire of someone convinced that destruction can somehow lead to glory. He’s been…
When We Envy Our Boss..!
There is something amusing about how we view the one who sits a little higher than us. We look at the boss in a cool cabin, or the owner in a comfortable car, and feel that life has dealt them a sweeter hand. Many years ago when I ran my…
How the Opposition Can Win..!
In my very fertile imagination, I can see it as clearly as if I were sitting in the room myself; a grand hall somewhere in the capital. The opposition parties have gathered once again after yet another round of electoral defeat. They have gathered to do the impossible. They want…
The Army We Cannot See..!
Just over two years ago I found myself speaking after three very eminent speakers. They had all painted a picture of our nation that made the audience shift uneasily in their seats. Shashi Tharoor had spoken, another respected voice had followed, and both had highlighted the challenges facing India. That…
Bihar and Prashant Kishor..!
As I look at the Bihar election results, I am not going to spend time on the poor show by the opposition. I have always maintained that unless the Congress and other parties pull up their socks and come with a clear agenda for progress, they will continue to struggle….
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.