Ever so often, I hear a branch of the Neem tree outside my window rubbing against the metal awning, and a little farther, the sound of the Peepal tree doing the same. I wondered whether the sounds were a conversation between the two, the Neem tree with its sweet voice…
Trust the Director..!
Something I loved doing and still love, is directing some of the plays I’ve written. But even as I directed the same, I would always see a difference in how members of the cast treated my directional skills. Those who I had directed before, would be like putty in my…
Not Celebrating Christmas..!
Yesterday I sang a quartet piece with a family, who’d just lost their father, a strong powerful bass. The three, the mother, son and daughter invited me to sing in his place, and as I sang along, thoughts went through my mind. How easy it would have been for them…
Choirs, Christmas, and the Conductor..!
Have you ever heard choirs, whose melodious voices bring tears of joy into your eyes? As if the windows of heaven have opened and you get glimpses of pure glory and supreme ecstasy! Well, it’s the Christmas Season and choirs all over are producing these wonderfully ecstatic moments. Moments produced…
Forever Worried Mothers..!
Something that keeps my wife from having a good night’s sleep is when she hears that one of our daughter’s is not well. Initially, I used to think it was the doctor in her, trying to find a medical remedy, but now I think it’s all about being a mother….
Why a Disabled Child..!
It was many years ago that I landed at the hospital where my wife practiced, to meet the mother of a baby who had been born with a physical deformity. The mother was not there but the grandmother was. “Why?” she sobbed, “did God do this to my daughter. Hasn’t…
Call Discouragement a Liar..!
There were tears in her eyes when I entered the room many years ago. I knew she had been on the phone and I wondered who had made her cry. “Dad,” she asked, “am I a failure?” “Are you?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she said, her eyes brimming with…
Grabbing Property..!
Something that breaks relationships, especially among siblings is the grabbing of property, oftimes in a way, in which one brother or sister gets less, or is cheated out of what is rightfully theirs. Or, it could be grabbing someone else’s property. Do you think garnering property will bring happiness into…
Louder than the Chisel..!
The old mother, in her bedroom down the corridor, cried out, “Where are you, my child?” “Mother, please don’t disturb me this month, as I’m going to be very busy!” shouted her daughter tapping away on the keys of her phone. “Busy doing what?” asked her mother, “I need to…
An Uneasy Maharashtra..!
Though the NDA allies have won a sweeping victory in Maharashtra, there’s still a sense of unease all over the state. Hardly any firecrackers went off on the day of the results, and victory celebrations have been low key and with not much publicity. It’s as if winners feel the…
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.