I sometimes wonder if the violin named “second fiddle” ever felt insulted. After all, when the orchestra begins, the spotlight is never on him. It’s the first violin who soaks in the applause, while the poor second fiddle just sits there, bow in hand, looking like an unpaid extra in…


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.