‘…When we share—that is poetry in the prose of life…..’ Sigmund Freud Something terribly disgusting in our country is the glamour our political leaders portray through their ostentatious cars and homes they live in. The money they lavish on themselves so blatantly could easily feed a hundred families for a…
Bringing Up Children..!
A few years ago a school down the road asked me if I would address parents on how to bring up children! For a moment I asked myself as to how I’d been selected for the job, and wondered whether it had anything to do with bringing up two daughters,…
No Kick-Starter..!
It was after the unfurling of the flag at the Republic Day function, I notice a stall put up nearby, allowing people to test drive scooters. I go over, and realize it’s been over three decades I’d ridden one, but watch the salesman tell a customer, “Just press the switch!”…
Use Your Voice this Republic Day..!
And as our beautiful flag is unfurled this Republic Day, let your voice and mine, stilled through fear or indifference, flow free, understanding our absolute right to protest, given by a Constitution, whose making we celebrate today! “Use Your Voice!” “Use Your Voice!” The residents of Upper East Side, Manhattan,…
Say Yes To No.!
For many years I worked as a salesman in my father’s company. There were times when I nearly made a sale but the customer would say that he would call me the next day and confirm the order. I would come back quite excited and tell dad I had nearly…
Not Just Cheap Cars..!
How often before finding out more about the quality of a product, we go in for something cheaper based on the price and regret later. Thus, came this imaginary experience of a cheap car: “Our engineers burned the midnight oil to produce this car,” said the MD as he showed…
Be the Salt of India..!
Reached America last year on their day of thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day as they call it, where even as celebrations went on, I also heard voices of discontent and simmering anger from groups of Native Indians, the original settlers of America. They spoke of atrocities, of hypocrisy and unfair means…
When the Teleprompter Fails..!
In the good old days when public speaking was an art, many enrolled in classes to learn how to have confidence in themselves, how to convince people and thereby control a situation, which were known as the three Cs of public speaking. Cicero, in his Roman toga, used deft hand…
Shut Up and Start Listening..!
If there was some mechanism that could amplify all cell phone conversations taking place at once, the sound produced would be louder than an earthquake or bomb blast, a rumble worse than a giant drill tearing into a concrete road! Once upon a time we saw people walking around in…
Some Stories Never End..!
She opened the bathroom door. He lay dead inside. She called me, her voice hysterical. They had, had a drink the night before, and another and another and another, and he already with liver ailment had staggered to the bathroom and she to bed. It was not a bed she…
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.