Running to China…!
Somewhere in Shanghai, the tall Chinaman looked at the other Chinaman and chuckled, “I can see someone running toward us.” “Who?” asked the second Chinaman, lifting his teacup with casual indifference. “The man from the cow belt. Wears kurtas that hug the wind and speaks in three-syllable slogans.” “But why…
A ‘Dead Economy’?
It was the funeral of the century. India’s economy lay on a bamboo bier in Delhi’s central square, covered not in the Tricolour, but with copies of the Economic Survey and a few unpaid electricity bills. Priests chanted. TV anchors sniffled into their microphones. Politicians jostled for space like pigeons…
The Hugger-In-Chief..!
Ever been hugged when you didn’t want to be? You know the kind—when a distant uncle at a wedding suddenly clamps you in a bear hug, and you emerge gasping for air, smelling of his aftershave for the next three weeks. Now imagine that uncle is a bearded old Indian…
A Happy State of Emergency..!
Fifty years ago, Mrs Indira Gandhi did something absolutely shocking. No, not talk in better English than the BBC anchor who interviewed her, but The Emergency. She declared it, imposed it, and for 21 months, India was in lockdown before lockdowns became fashionable. Newspapers were gagged, politicians were jailed, and…
Mocked for Speaking English..!
So, there I was, sipping a hot cup of cutting chai outside my local teashop, when I heard someone laugh. Not at a joke, or a meme, or even at a politician’s promise — no, someone was being laughed at for speaking English! “Angrez ban raha hai!” they snorted, as…
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.