A few evenings ago, I spent an evening with someone who I heard was on first name terms with every liquor bottle in the neighbourhood. And then something happened. He gave his life to God. Now before you imagine a dramatic thunderclap and a choir singing somewhere behind the curtains,…
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.
It’s Saturday..!
There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who wake up on a Saturday morning with a sense of purpose, and those who wake up and wonder what that unfamiliar feeling is. That feeling, my dear reader, is called freedom. It visits you once a week, looks around…
Sexual Harassment and Forced Conversion..!
Yesterday I read a news report that left me more confused than a man trying to understand GST without a calculator, a lawyer, and divine intervention. A corporate office in Nashik, had been accused of sexual harassment. Serious issue. Grave matter. Needs investigation, justice, and strong action. But later, a…
Clothes Maketh a Man..!
As a teenager, I wrote a play about two young men in college. One arrived each day looking as if he had stepped straight out of a fashion catalogue, wearing stylish new clothes with all the pride of a peacock at mating season. The other had a simpler wardrobe. White…
Death of a Singer..!
When news spread that Asha Bhosle is no more, something very strange happened in our homes. Radios were switched on with unusual reverence, playlists were dusted off like old family albums, and suddenly people who had not hummed a tune in years began to nod thoughtfully, as if they had…
Woman’s Reservation: A Step Backwards..!
The other day I watched a group of women before a meeting, planning the events. It was strategic. It was, if you ask me, better organised and dramatically executed than most cabinet meetings. And as I stood there, pretending to check my phone while actually listening with great national interest,…
The Failure Brand..!
“You can’t let your failures define you… you have to let your failures teach you,” said Barack Obama. Now let us pause at that word define, because it is not an innocent word. It is a branding exercise. It is you picking up a branding iron, dipping it in…
Networking or Net Not Working…!
Yesterday I was the keynote speaker to a group that lives and breathes networking. You could almost hear the rustle of visiting cards before the meeting even began. People ready to connect, to build, to grow. And I decided to begin my speech with a fisherman. Not exactly what they…
We Have Information, Not Wisdom..!
The other day I asked a young man for directions. He did not answer me. Instead, he pulled out his phone, stared at it with deep affection, and then began speaking, not to me, but to the glowing rectangle in his hand. “One minute,” he said, as if the phone…
Being Called Aunty..!
This morning’s newspaper carried a rather interesting piece of news. A nurse in the UK had taken her colleague to court for calling her “aunty” and walked away not only with her dignity intact but also with a rather respectable sum of money. Now in India, if we started suing…
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.