“Ma,” asked the little girl, scampering after her mother, “What’s Good Friday?” “It’s the day Jesus died on the cross!” said the mother as she smiled at her daughter’s widening eyes, knowing what the next question would be. “If Jesus died on the cross, how can it be a good day ma?”…
Your Right of Way..!
Something I’ve noticed abroad, and hardly ever here, are people moving aside to give another the right of way. It could be anyone standing on the aisle inside a store, and when someone walks towards them, he or she doesn’t have to edge past, but the person in their path…
Teaching Others to be Secular..!
A rather ugly episode happened that made me think deep into the subject of respecting other religions. A secular choir in Bombay, one of the oldest in India, suddenly had a piquant situation. They were invited to sing for a program which was in praise to a particular god. The…
The Secretary’s Business Visit..!
“Mr. Singh, our housing society secretary is coming to visit us now,” said the wife, putting down the phone. “Why?” I asked, “have we been using too much water? Have our kids broken any windows? Did our dog bite his maid?” “This is not an official visit,” said my wife…
The Shark’s Mouth..!
As I hear with sadness about more and more of our youth getting addicted to drugs and alcohol, I remember the story of two fish moving along the water together and who come across what looks like a huge cave. “Let’s go in and explore,” says the smaller of the…
Weary of Fighting?
It was at a crematorium, as the body was being prepared to be lit, that a friend leaned across to where I stood and asked, “You know I read your columns, don’t you feel frustrated fighting for causes that seem lost?” I watched the son going round the body of…
Sweet Voices from the Lie School..!
With the internet reigning supreme and the media slowly moving into petrified silence, leaders the world over, find that telling a lie convincingly, makes it believable. “People don’t know what to believe anymore!” said a teacher who worked in a newly begun school for liars, “So we teach leaders to…
Your Four Wives..!
As I hear about a guru, who mesmerized the youth with his clever words, and now lies in hospital, and as I remember scenes of the billionaire wedding, I’m reminded about the story of a king with four wives. He loved the fourth wife the most and adorned her with…
Double Your Positive Energy..!
Aunty Toto was not her real name, though strangely we all called her that! She had every kind of problem that you could think of, resting on her shoulders. Her husband had left her, her children had married wrong, her grandchildren were a source of worry and finally she found…
Convert Your Work Into Service..!
Here’s a story: One evening a man was addressing a workshop on the concept of work culture. One of the participants asked, “I am a senior manager of a materials department and joined an organization twenty five years ago as an engineer trainee and over the last 25 years I…
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.