The Silent Piano..!
At home my piano is a silent one. It stands there in the sitting room, polished, upright, respectable. Visitors notice it immediately. They nod approvingly and say things like old world charm, classic taste, elegance. The piano accepts the compliments quietly, knowing full well that admiration without use is a…
Singing for a Performance, Or…!
Last year I was given two invitations. One, to sing for a grand choir conducted by the legendary Zubin Mehta, and the other, from a small church that needed a baritone voice. I remember sitting and thinking about it for a while. Zubin Mehta! The very name carries prestige, glory,…
Eight Minutes Late..!
The bus was supposed to arrive at 6:15. It turned up at 6:23. Eight minutes late. Eight minutes in which I transformed from a calm citizen to a pacing tiger outside a zoo cage. I looked at my watch, scowled at the road, and mentally composed angry letters to the…
Behind that Closed Door..!
Yesterday, it was somewhere above the Atlantic Sea, maybe higher, maybe closer to heaven, that I noticed it. A door. Closed. Sealed. Locked tighter than the vaults of the Reserve Bank. Behind that door, I was told, sat the man in charge—our pilot. Now, I’ve never seen him. Neither his…
The Bold and the Cowardly..!
There’s always a hush in the land when a bold voice speaks. A hush not of respect, but of secret admiration. “What guts!” whisper the listeners behind closed doors, phones tucked under bedsheets, curtains drawn tight. Then, just as quickly, silence. The applause is private, the cheer is hidden, and…
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.