Some four years ago, barber shops were full! Everybody, I heard with even a whiff of a mustache was trying to shape it downwards like Wing Commander Abhinandan’s whiskers! Even mummy’s eyebrow pencil disappeared as those without whiskers, used hers to get Abhi’s curved mushy look. “Look at me!” they…
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.
The Reservation Trap..!
Even as I see our prime minister striving hard to place India as a country to be reckoned with, what will cause impediments in his vision, is not a jealous China, nor a rising population, nor any domestic upheaval, but the clamour for reservations. Was listening to a story of…
Civil War at Home..!
Quite often I see family run businesses where the father on paper has passed the mantle onto his son or daughter, but keeps hovering over the company possessively, not wanting to relinquish his authority! This also happens in many homes. The son or daughter feels the father is too old…
Kick Temptation Away..!
Of late, priests, godmen, gurus and other religious leaders are showing a sordid side of themselves! Rape, molestations, blackmail, assaults, greed and debauchery seem to be springing from their sacred loins, and seeing this there seems to be a growing disenchantment for all things holy! “If priests are like this,…
Ban the Blanket..!
Horror of horrors! A news item appearing in Indian newspapers sometime ago, mentioned that the blankets offered by the Indian Railways to its passengers for their overnight journeys were washed only once in two months! Which meant, realized horrified passengers that they had slept in the sweat and dirt of…
Busy Making a Billion..!
Spent an evening at the club, with a gentleman who knew one of India’s billionaires when he was coming up, “I knew him when he was struggling,” he said, “And I helped him a bit!” “You must be great friends now!” I said. “I suppose we are!” he said loyally,…
Best Education in the World..!
And as different governments over the years have addressed all the wrong problems in our educational system, I can only liken it to an imaginary minister again focusing on non-issues! “Minister, we are so happy you have been appointed. We have to do something about our educational system!” “Yes, yes,…
It’s Not the Taj..!
As I hear about names of cities being changed left, right and centre I see members of the heritage committee, “This building and this and this and this!” exclaim members of the heritage committee as they walk down the roads of a city anywhere in the country. “But we don’t…
Cunning People in Our World..!
We glory in cunning, but being clever without compassion makes a cheat of you! Quite a few decades ago I moved to the city of Bombay with a few rupees in my pocket and started peddling the product I was selling, from door to door. In one of the homes,…
The Puppets and the Puppeteer..!
“Who told you to put all our savings into that bank?” shouts a distraught wife as she looks at her weeping husband, “It’s collapsed! It’s your fault! We are ruined!” In many homes, it’s either a husband or wife crying out about a bank collapse or very lately the collapse…
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.