“Now that you’ve retired, Ma, what do you plan to do?” her children asked as she returned home on her last day at the office. “Join the church choir,” she announced, her eyes shining. The children stared at her in disbelief. “But Ma, you don’t know how to sing.” She…
Imitating Joseph..!
As we enter Christmas week, the spotlight predictably falls on the Baby in the manger and on Mary, serene and glowing in every nativity scene ever enacted. Rightly so. But somewhere just outside the frame stands a man who rarely gets centre stage. Joseph. The man holding the lantern. The…
Smog Over the Capital..!
There’s a deadly smog over the capital. A dense, suffocating haze that hangs low over buildings, institutions, and common sense. This is not the kind that makes your throat burn or your eyes water. This one, settles quietly in the mind, blurring judgment and numbing outrage. In this smog, law…
Cross Over Shashi..!
Politics has always been a curious theatre where loyalty is applauded in speeches but often abandoned in practice. Few episodes illustrate this better than the recent conduct of Shashi Tharoor. He did not waste a moment before joining an opposition delegation invited by the ruling party to tell the world…
Sailing Rudderless..!
It was the tiniest part of the ship. I stood on the deck, looking at the vastness around me, the towering mast, the thick ropes, the heavy iron chains, and then my eyes fell on something so small that I almost laughed. That little thing? Surely not. “That’s the rudder,”…
Christmas Cheer..!
Ask someone today what Christmas cheer is and chances are they will point you to a bar menu, a shopping mall, or a man in a red suit sweating under a synthetic beard shouting ho ho ho at children who are more interested in his phone than his promise of…
Cracks in the Calm..!
There was a time when power announced itself softly. A calm voice. A measured reply. A smile that said, I am not threatened by questions. Those days seem to be slipping quietly out the back door of our Parliament, leaving behind raised voices, clenched jaws, and the unmistakable sound of…
Lord Give Me Such Faith..!
I was seeing him after many years and for a moment I wondered if it was the same person. Time and illness had changed him. Years ago, when I had done some advertising work for his company, he was the head of the organisation. Confident and sharp minded. When he…
A Play Worth Watching…!
Tonight, I walk into a theatre not as a spectator but as a curious onlooker of my own creation. I go to watch a play I have written. Not to soak in applause. Not to count the claps or measure the decibel level of appreciation. I go for something far…
The Strange Music of Surrender..!
It is easy to say, ‘surrender to God’. It sounds noble. It sounds spiritual. It sounds like something saints do while glowing softly under a halo of warm light. But let me tell you, surrender is rarely that dramatic. Often it is as simple, and as confusing, as standing in…
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.