With so many protests and debates over colour issues worldwide, corporates and industrial houses are jumping overboard to absolve themselves of colour discrimination, by changing names and titles. The latest, ‘Fair and Lovely, has changed its name to ‘Glow and Lovely!’ And in my vivid imagination I hear a boss…
Daughters..!
And as I opened the papers today, I was startled to see a former Madhya Pradesh minister and Congress leader Jitu Patwari tweeting that the ruling party had given birth to five “daughters”- noteban, GST, inflation, unemployment and recession- in its bid to beget a “son” called development. In other…
Suspended Midair…!
Was sitting in my terrace garden this morning and heard the somewhat irritating sound of crows cawing out loud. Normally this means one of them is injured or there’s a monkey around, and they’re all set to attack the poor fellow. I decided to save the victim or shoo the…
Not Just Cutting Vegetables..!
These thoughts occurred while waiting for someone at a home for the aged a little before the lockdown: ‘As I look up from where I’m sitting, I see the most serious activity going on; a number of old ladies from the same home are involved in cutting vegetables. I think…
Let Me Keep My Dignity..!
Some time ago, I got a call from a neighbour of mine. She was at the bank and sounded quite perturbed, “Bob,” she said, “there’s a poor man outside the bank, bleeding from the leg, can we do something?” A few moments later we loaded the man into my car…
Yielding Sweetness When Crushed..!
He was there standing like a shadow near his building as I stopped my car. He waited for me to get down and guide him inside my vehicle, then grinned at my wife and children though he couldn’t see them. He is blind, and lived in Kuwait, till his wife…
Be A Hero Today..!
Millions fought the two world wars. Many, petrified by the sound of gunfire, terrified, each moment could be their last. And then from such as these and those who were afraid, sprang heroes! Heroes, who rushed into the heart of the firing, braving bayonets and bullets, captured strategic posts. Heroes,…
handshakes, hugs and hoodwinking..!
No, it wasn’t the 14th of Nov, his birthday, and many if they’d seen him, would have recognized him by the red rose he so elegantly wore on the jacket appropriately named after him. But, like I said, it wasn’t his birthday, and no reason for him to have left…
Wrinkles on YOUR Face..!
“Oh no!” you whisper as you stare at the mirror. “What is it?” asks the wife, looking up in alarm, “You look pale, come we need to take you to the hospital, you’re getting paler. Doctor! Doctor, my husband is turning white. Yes, please send an ambulance, I think it’s…
Father Take Me Back..!
A team invited me to give a talk to prisoners at a prison in Mumbai. What I saw that day as I sat with the prisoners was a sense of sadness. I had expected tough gangsters to be strutting around ready to pounce on me and hold me hostage, but…
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.