If you want to drive an auto-rickshaw in Mumbai, they don’t test you for your driving skill, or your politeness with passengers, but pass you if you know Marathi. If you want to send your child to school in the same city, parents have to produce a domicile certificate saying…
Vengeance or Justice..!
“Attach their properties!” shouts a shrill voice. People shake their heads as they hear these orders and many including me hearing those words or seeing the headlines think it comes from a state which uses bulldozers and such techniques to still dissidents. But this was no powerful ruling party leader,…
A Repair Job, a Time to Rejuvenate..!
Raj’s breakfast was burnt! and the coffee tasted like sludge. Furious, he got into his car to drive to work, and a few kilometres down the road, heard the loud sound of a bang. The old man at the puncture shop, looked at Raj with quiet patience, “Quick!” shouted Raj,…
Politicians are Needed, but..!
Women wrestlers of India, who through sheer, grit, determination and perseverance, discipline and exercise powered their way to become winners, now sit in meek, silent protest, this, the second time in Delhi, asking for justice against, what those same muscles of theirs could not defend; the sexual molestation and advances…
Monster Outside but Dad Behind Me ..!
The house I grew up in was an isolated one, and though it was fun to have huge fields outside and even a vineyard at the edge of those fields, for me, a youngster, not yet into his teens, the nights were scary. What was most scary was the whining,…
Decide..!
If we could go through life without having to make decisions how easy it would be huh? Or so we think. Life is all about deciding between this or that; a checked shirt or striped, or no shirt at all, between the handsome man who is a flirt or plain…
Hypocrites in Their Washbasins…!
For many years I was able to get the sons and daughters of the poor around my colony, admission in good schools, but I remember once when the principal in charge of the school took me to a classroom, after I’d requested admission for a pump man’s daughter “Look at…
Throwing out the Elderly..!
If you visit many of our old folk’s homes, you will see old men and women kept there, not because they have nowhere else to stay, but because their children threw them out. They either signed their homes over to their children or the children started eyeing the space the…
It’s the Same Powerful You..!
A friend of mine, a big businessman, came to me at a party, “Bob,” he said, “Will you teach me how to speak in public?” “Sure!” I said. “I am a multi-millionaire,” he said, “I make the toughest deals, but when I stand in front of an audience, I am…
Divorce after Decades Together..!
Was rather perplexed to read this morning that more old couples were filing for divorce than ever before, “But why would people in their old age move to end decades of togetherness?” I wondered and walked to the park for my daily rounds. I think my old friend Kumar had…
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.