It was the annual parent’s teachers meeting at the local Jewish school. The teacher, a lady with a long,hooked nose, looked at the parents sitting in front of her, they were many and she wondered irritably how long it would take before she finished with all of them. “Next,” she…
Pickles, Sugar and Pepper..!
Many years ago while doing my Masters, I had a professor who taught me linguistics. This good man from a Brahmin family had done his studies in England and very often told us stories of life in that country where he had gone to study. “For the first few months!”…
Tyrants, Unloved at Home..!
A few years ago, I’d gone to spend a month in Europe and when I boarded the Alitalia flight back home, there was an incredible childlike ecstasy like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I actually felt like dancing on the plane, oh yes Elvis, there’s no place like home! Did…
Rape, Anger, and Exercising Restraint..!
For many years as honorary secretary of a prison ministry, we were given permission by the government to visit prisons all over the state and counsel those jailed inside. Quite often, tough looking men and women would burst into tears and continue weeping as they regretted some crime they committed…
D- Day and T- Day..!
Exactly seventy-nine years ago, the Allied forces fighting World War II landed on the beaches of Normandy to make a final thrust at Germany, who by then had nearly finished murdering 6 million Jews! Four years ago, tears streaming down my cheeks, I watched the late Queen and others give…
Bad Habits Need A Kicking..!
Some years ago, the late Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister had a bad habit of chewing paan! Sitting on the dais at Islampur in Sangli, he had to hear Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit openly criticize him for his tobacco chewing habit. He did not retaliate. He did not swear vengeance or…
Attention Seekers of the World..!
There’s not a day gone by that one does not come across an attention seeker! In the good old days, they were party animals and could be seen in most social events, today, many haunt WhatsApp groups, where either they are glaringly apparent, or they are subtly seeking. The glaringly…
4th Man in the Fire..!
Good ole Kapil Dev! Not only did he lead the cricket team of 1983 to a World Cup victory, but he set hearts afire yesterday as he led the same team to announce their complete support to the protesting girl wrestlers in Delhi: His whole World Cup team, except Roger…
Keep a Balance..!
“Is today a holiday?” I asked my driver as I observed the roads empty. “All the people are up there!” said my driver. I wondered what he meant, then realised he was pointing to the metro line, running alongside the road. I was happy, less traffic jams meant less fumes,…
Inaction for a Greater Cause..!
It wasn’t the fact that she was murdered in broad daylight that got me horrified, nor was it the fact that the public did nothing to save her from sixteen stab wounds, and even more that a concrete slab was used to smash and bludgeon her head. What got me…
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.