“Mother!” cried the little girl, “I don’t want to go to college anymore! The lecturer called me an idiot!” The mother left her cooking and walked over to where her daughter sat, “And are you one?” “I don’t know!” whispered the girl and the mother watched sadly as a tear…
If the World was a Ship..!
In a play I’ve just written, I have waiters in a restaurant singing, “If the world was a café! Yes, what a beautiful world it would be,’” sing the waiters in barbershop quartet style, but today I’d like to ask, “What if Earth is a ship? What if each country…
Block Party..!
This was many years ago, while visiting my parents in America: ‘What are our neighbours doing?’ I asked my father, as I peered out of my parents’ apartment in New York. ‘They’re having a block party,’ he said peering out from his apartment. I walked downstairs onto the road and…
America, Jews, and Who Killed Jesus?
In the streets of America a few decades ago, youngsters belonging to the Jewish community quite often had stones pelted at them, were fisted and shouted at, “Jesus killer!” was the taunt they heard thrown at them. “But we didn’t kill Jesus!” they wailed. “Your ancestors did!” said the righteous…
Heaven with Bach and Shakespeare..!
Tears of ecstasy rolled down my cheeks as I listened to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and as the choir thundered in German, ‘Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was die Mode streng geteilt. I sang along, ‘Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt!’ The music slowly stopped, but tears kept flowing,…
Providing Fishing Nets..!
“..Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Provide him with a net and you feed him for a lifetime…” Adapted Chinese proverb. Last week, I was invited for a function where adman Piyush Pandey released his book. There, I was introduced to a gentleman who…
We Need a Sense of Humour..!
Give me a sense of humor, Lord; Give me the grace to see a joke, To get some humor out of life, And pass it on to other folk. Ah! Tis easier writing tragedy than crafting comedy! It’s so easy for a writer to bring tears into a reader’s eye,…
A Fire Dog and Your Purpose..!
“I’m useless! I don’t think I’m cut out for anything!” I nearly choked on my food as I heard this from the lady standing at my side. It was lunch break at a seminar on ‘Purpose and Work’ I was addressing and I’d noticed that even through the supposedly motivational…
Friendly Fire and the Congress..!
In Lexington, Virginia, lie the mortal remains of a legend, General Stonewall Jackson. General Jackson earned his nickname at the First Battle of Manassas. This was during the American Civil War, the Confederate soldiers were hard pressed. General Gerard Barnard Bee was desperately trying to rally his troops to withstand…
The Smiling Sadhu..!
He was a sadhu like any other sadhu except he had a grin on his face. He looked at my glum face and asked, “You like my smile?” I nodded even as he changed his expression and made his face a grimace, “How do you like me now?” “Horrible!” I…
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.