The man walking by me, slightly bedraggled and beard unkempt, cleared his throat, blew his nose and I watched in horror as whatever irritated his nostrils landed close to my feet. “Hey,” I shouted, “That nearly fell on my feet!” “It didn’t!” said the man as he prepared for his…
She Sat Smiling..!
The rain fell in gentle drops onto the waiting leaves that seemed to be smiling as they raised their branches heavenward and received their watery blessing. The birds sang happily, and lazily flew from tree to tree enjoying the droplets and playing a game with the lenient raindrops. She sat…
They Are Our Children..!
‘Twas two years ago, three friends and I drove to Goa, and stopped at a well-known restaurant for lunch. It was an open-air eatery and as we sat we could see car loads of families coming with hungry passengers looking famished and tired. The fathers seated themselves at the head…
Cyclone Cruelty, You and Me..!
Cruel, heartless and merciless was evil wind that blew in last week, piloted with ferocity by Cyclone Tauktae herself! Scorn writ all over her face, she mowed down all in her path; trees, lampposts, hutments and people themselves. I beheld her destruction, as like a boxer with a wicked left…
Being UnIndian..!
With patriotism being questioned, sedition being defined and slogans being the criteria for motherland loyalty, we may have a confused people in the country: My daughter, who stands at attention when the national anthem is played even on TV for the cricket team, stopped me at the door while I…
A Joy Within ..!
She was short, squat and dowdy, and as I ran to join the group of tourists at the heritage building I wondered what this women was doing as a guide. The lady looked up over the heads of the others and instead of annoyance, smiled, and suddenly I saw more…
Justice Magnified..!
As I see the blame game going between the owners of the barge which saw nearly sixty die last week on the Bombay High Seas, and the late captain, we hear people saying we should be lenient with someone or other, but then a murder is a murder. Callousness cannot…
Too Busy Today..!
It was as if I could hear a voice speaking gently from the skies above, speaking these words to me: Dear Bob, the voice said: As you got up this morning, I watched you, and hoped you would talk to me, even if it was just a few words, asking…
The Tooth Fairy..!
As my younger one celebrates her birthday today, I’m going to reproduce an article of mine on her that was published many years back in the Indian Express: She had got up twice during the night I heard later, hoping to catch the tooth fairy at work. The next morning…
Punctured Lifeboats..!
Filled with horror I read about the twenty-seven ONGC employees who died and fifty-three missing, when their barge sank during Cyclone Tauktae’s tryst with the west coast of India. The barge, as you know, is the sleeping dormitory for the employees of the rig, and has no engine. It’s only…
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.