What is it that is blinding our people? A bridge that stretches out into the sea, tunnels, metros and bullet trains that cut short travel time and that speak of a new India, equal to the west. They think they see progress. But is it? In my recent visit to…
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.
A Long Walk..!
It’s a long walk he’s settled himself to do, from Manipur to Mumbai! Six thousand seven hundred and thirteen kilometres! Stretching and arduous, it’s going to be, but tis not the distance covered that will be tiresome and difficult, but the uncovering and tending of all the pain, the hurt,…
Marriage Maintenance..!
The newly married couple sat in front of me yesterday talking about their honeymoon, “He wanted to go and see a volcano at four in the morning,” she said, “But I said no way, I’m not coming with you!” “So did you go alone?” I asked and the man nodded,…
Outside the Church’s Closed Door..!
The little boy was weeping outside the closed doors of the church. His tears flowed like tsunami waves down his cheeks. A stranger passing by, stopped and enquired, “Why are you crying little boy, that too outside a church?” The little boy looked up to the stranger and said, “The…
Gone Are The Days..!
Years ago one of the first songs I loved playing on my harmonica was the Negro Spiritual, “Gone Are The Days.” It was a sad song and had a plaintive melody but ended with the words, “I’m coming!” as the black slave sang out to his God that he would…
Maldives and Laughing at Ourselves.!
Though the remarks by the Maldives deputy minister in ridiculing our PM as a ‘clown’ and a ‘puppet’ are immature and uncalled for, I do believe the bigger thing to have been done in this situation was for the PM to have laughed it off, instead of making it a…
Your Common Courtyard..!
“…..A common courtyard is swept by none’….” Chinese Proverb “Park your taxi to the side of the road!” I told the taxi driver gently as he got out of his cab to go to the local temple. “Are you the police?” he asked me. “No!” I said. “Then mind your…
Black n White..!
“Would you like to see the pictures I clicked?” she asked me as I sat at a restaurant somewhere up near the Fox Glacier in New Zealand. I looked at her, she had been sitting alone at the next table and had waited for this opportunity to speak with me…
Catch The Real Thieves..!
As rapes and molestations take place in the country, we find that instead of making the streets safer, we insist that women should remain at home, dress in a particular way, and keep themselves out of sight. The girls are most often blamed for a crime either for their dressing…
Did You?
The cars were honking on the road this morning as I made my way to the park, drivers in trucks had their heads out yelling, and motorcyclists worried expressions behind their visors as they looked ahead to see only a jam. I walked on ahead and soon found the culprit;…
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.