I was pondering about joy this morning and realized with a start that my wish these days is not for faster car or bigger house, but joy in whatever situation I am in. I do remember the time when the next party, or big event, the next big excitement had…
Abetting ‘Opposition’s’ Suicide..!
Somewhere in Rajasthan, in a police station, the phone rang and a constable lazily picked up the phone, listened carefully, frowned and then called out to his superior, “Sir, a suicide is taking place?” “Taking place?” shouted his superior, “Go quickly, bring down the victim if he is hanging, flush…
How Big is Your Bag of Smelly Vadas?
Years ago, younger and less wiser, I loved warning people that I never forgave and remembered every insult throughout my life and would have my revenge for every provocative incident done to me. Then I read this story which changed my attitude and taught me to forgive: A kindergarten teacher…
Not Just Another Mom..!
More than a decade ago I attended a very interesting seminar on ‘The Servant Leader’ and the speaker, Dr Sam Kamaleson asked the audience to introduce themselves. Two ladies got up rather hesitatingly and said, “We’re just mothers!” As the seminar proceeded the speaker asked the two ladies to stand…
Let’s Produce Sweet Music Together..!
Just over two years ago, seventy-three voices, including mine, and an orchestra of thirty-one raised their voices, violins, violas, cellos, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, French horns, trumpets, trombones, and a timpani, making glorious music! There must have been a smile on Mozart’s face somewhere in the heavens as he heard singers…
The Old Wonderful World..!
Anyone who’s seen the classic Cecil B. DeMille’s movie, ‘Ten Commandments’ will relate to what I’m going to portray; the torture, the whipping, the cruelty, the bullying that the Israelites were undergoing under the hands of the Egyptians, till a prince named Moses, rescued them, with God’s help, and took…
This Too Shall Pass..!
A story goes that a neighboring king once came to Solomon and asked him for a motto, “It must be one”, said he, “that shall be as much use to me in times of trouble as in times of prosperity”. The wise Solomon it is said, gave the king these…
Aiyo..!
She was beautiful, doe eyed and South Indian, and every time, we met after college, and I recounted something I’d been through during the day, she would exclaim, “Aiyo!” Aiyo, covered all her emotions, from ‘Oh dear!” to ‘’Oh no!” in sadness and even in joy, could ‘aiyo’ be used….
Family Photos n’ Lockdown Fights..!
Something I see very often on most sitting room walls in most homes is the family photo: Generally taken when the whole family trouped to a local studio in their Sunday best, stood in classic formation as photographer adjusted his costly equipment, peered into his eyepiece, said the standard ‘cheese’…
A Sheet of Snow White Paper..!
One section of a bookshop that always beckons me seductively, is where they display stationary. It isn’t books by famous authors that has me enthralled, or shelves that contain classics by writers of yore, nor crime or fiction, but empty pads of white paper that come in all shapes and…
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.