Ever so often do I hear people telling me how they lay awake through the previous night. They make it sound like the end of the world. “You lay awake all night?” I ask laughing. “Yes,” they say, “yes, don’t laugh Bob!” “And did the troubles of the day appear,…
The Heat, It’s Killing Me..!
Hot, isn’t it? “The heat it’s killing me!” you grumble from your airconditioned room, and then the doorbell rings. You open the door, and see your garbage collector or maid or driver or maybe the watchman, “What?” you ask angrily as the blast of hot air hits you. You look…
Ye Children Of India..!
“Something troubling you ma?” I asked, looking at my mother and also the mother of more than a billion and a quarter who were part of her offspring.” And then I watched as the mother of over a billion looked at the calendar furtively, “I don’t think I’ll rest till…
Replacing the Morning Walk..!
Maybe it’s because I couldn’t complete my morning walk today, being slightly under the weather that made me look for another alternative to walking. I stared at the advertisement: A walk machine! All I had to do was place my still lazy feet on the machine without getting off the…
Your Decisions Make You..!
“I’ve made many wrong decisions in my life,” said a famous person, “But I’m proud of every one of them, because I made a decision!” Life is all about making decisions isn’t it? So often we go through life hoping a problem will go away without making any decision, because…
Is Your Job Done?
It happened a few years ago, when a young Indian army officer serving in the dangerous Jammu and Kashmir region, received information that terrorists were firing indiscriminately onto the public at the Jammu Railway Station. Reaching the spot in a few minutes Lt. Triveni Singh and his group of commandos…
Stop It! You’re Not Old..!
Was in Bhopal a few months ago conducting a workshop on writing and public speaking, and having an extra day before heading home, was offered a sightseeing trip by a few students. There was a lot of Bhopal to be seen and I must have whispered, “I’m getting old,” once…
Stop Being a Dinosaur…!
There are many who fight shy and even condemn technological and scientific advances in our world. But by doing so they’ll become dinosaurs in our modern age. Here are some funny stories of those who struggled to catch up: A writer who used pen and ink was persuaded to change…
Known by Friends We Keep..!
Have been watching our foreign minister, with serious, unsmiling, professional face, meeting world leaders, and having our newspapers report, how he’s told some world leader off, or put some other diplomat in his place, and we applaud, forgetting our news will never report the response he’s got, or mention how…
Make Mistakes and Learn..!
Singing in one of the best choirs in the country and under the illustrious Coomi Wadia, I think I have been spoiled silly. A point she emphatically enforces is that in case a choir member makes a mistake during rehearsals or even during a performance no other member is to…
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.