I watch from my window in the Pocono Mountains as the snow begins its slow descent. It does not fall. It performs. Each flake arrives like a well-rehearsed dancer, light on its feet, floating with confidence, absolutely certain it will be admired. And it is. Oh yes, it is. Snow…
Shutting Down a City..!
A political leader and Rajya Sabha member from Mumbai has proudly announced that his party can still shut down Mumbai in ten minutes. One wonders what exactly is being boasted about here. Mumbai is not a toy city, nor a private estate. It is a living, breathing organism of millions…
Let Your Yay be Yay..!
How often we swear. Not just casually, but dramatically. On our mother’s grave. On our own life. And when all else fails, on the heads of our children. It is said with such confidence that even the ceiling fan pauses to listen. Yet somehow, miraculously, the promise still manages to…
Honour and Monkeys..!
In the last two centuries, more people have died due to wars than at any other time in recorded history. Technology has advanced, education has spread, and yet humanity seems to have become more efficient at killing itself. This contradiction demands reflection. I believe the reason lies not merely in…
It Won’t Stop at 69..!
Sixty-nine candidates elected unopposed! Just like that. No ballot papers warmed by human fingers. No queues outside schools. No indelible ink on proud index fingers. Democracy, apparently, decided to take the day off. In the Maharashtra municipal elections, sixty- eight of those unopposed seats quietly slipped into the pocket of…
Sleepless World Leaders..!
World leaders, ladies and gentlemen, have officially stopped sleeping. Not because of climate change or inflation, but because sleep has become geopolitically unsafe. Ever since one Latin American leader was escorted from his bed to New York faster than a room service order, world leaders have begun to view bedrooms…
You Wanted His Blessings Sir?
Since you visited a church sir, I suppose you went looking for blessings. That cathedral is grand enough to give that impression. But here is the inconvenient truth sir. God’s blessings are not dispensed like prasad after a brief appearance. They follow obedience not optics. There are no shortcuts through…
Youngsters, Don’t Be Globally Backward..!
There is a strange irony playing out in full public view, yet many refuse to see it. While the sons and daughters of our political leaders board flights to London, Boston, Singapore and Sydney, to study, the message sent to our local youth standing in dusty classrooms back home is…
He Goes Ahead..!
While watching the New Year celebrations on television, a strange though very ordinary thing happened. It was not yet New Year in Chicago, where I was, but the New Year had already arrived elsewhere. India had welcomed it with fireworks and selfies. China had stepped into it with colour and…
Oath in the Capital..!
While the rest of the world sits with diaries open and gym memberships renewed, resolving to drink more water and scroll less, something far more honest happens in the capital of India. An army gathers. Not to change. Not to improve. But to reaffirm continuity. This is not a resolution…
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.