The newspapers are dying. They were once proud. Noble. The Fourth Estate! Guardians of democracy! The ones who made politicians sweat with their headlines and editorials that sounded like stern headmasters with canes in their hands. But slowly, they are being replaced—by phone screens and keyboard warriors. Suddenly, every colony…
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.
Only Ninety-Nine..!
There was wailing next door. Not muffled sobs but full-throated, guttural wailing. My wife looked up from her tea, her eyebrows knitted in worry. “Something’s happened,” she said. I nodded. “Death in the family,” I whispered with the air of someone who watches too many crime shows. “Worse,” she said,…
Lifting the Stick of Faith..!
I often wonder what went through Moses’ mind as he stood with the Red Sea in front and the sound of furious chariot wheels behind. Maybe he scratched his beard thoughtfully—because let’s face it, if ever there was a situation that called for logic, this was it. A sea before…
The WhatsApp War..!
Every morning, as the sun peeps over our confused democracy, a silent war begins. Not at our borders, not in Parliament, but in the palm of your hand — yes, that unassuming rectangle known as your smartphone. While I sip my coffee and reach for my newspapers, elsewhere, warriors have…
Say Cheers to Our New Leaves..!
The peepul tree that towers over my house and garden had been shedding its leaves with a reckless abandon only nature can afford. For days, I watched, sipping my morning coffee, as the once-proud canopy thinned into a gaunt skeleton, each bare branch waving forlornly in the breeze. It was…
Heroes in Uniform or Just Uniforms?
We’re brought up on Hollywood movies showing brave firemen sliding down poles, racing to their gleaming engines, sirens wailing, and gallantly charging into burning buildings to rescue helpless kittens and terrified tenants. And here in Mumbai? Ah, dream on, my friend, dream on! Yesterday, a fire broke out in a…
Living their Judgement Day..!
There was a time, not so long ago, when you could walk into a church and feel the brush of angel wings against your shoulder. Today, more often than not, you’re lucky if you don’t feel the shove of a Bishop elbowing you aside as he clambers to hang onto…
The Whistle of a Bullet..!
So, this morning while sipping my sugarless coffee (doctor’s orders; doctor being my wife), I kept reading all the horror that has just happened leaving twenty- six dead. And of course, the usual statements from leaders saying “We strongly condemn…” Yes, that’s terrorism. Loud, brutal, explosive. Makes the news anchor’s…
Why Terrorists Use Terror..!
It was a gentle morning, the kind where birds sang despite traffic, and the chaiwalla smiled despite inflation. And then—boom! Not just the sound of a bomb, but the shattering of peace, the unraveling of normalcy, and the beginning of what the terrorist truly wanted: fear, division, and a society…
Climb to Clean, Says the Late Pope..!
The white cassock now lies still. The shepherd’s staff rests. And the world, Catholic or not, pauses to mourn a man who quietly shook empires—Pope Francis. He didn’t roar like a lion. He whispered like a sage. But those whispers reached corners that centuries of sermons never did. As tributes…
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.