Tears of ecstasy rolled down my cheeks as I listened to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and as the choir thundered in German, ‘Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was die Mode streng geteilt. I sang along, ‘Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt!’ The music slowly stopped, but tears kept flowing,…


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.