A sad plea I hear ever so often, especially from the old or sick: “Bob!, why does God want to prolong my life, can't He take me away?”By 7 p.m. on October 20, 1968, at the Mexico City Olympics Stadium, it w
An executive went to visit a doctor for a checkup. He showed signs of overwork and stress. The doc warned him to slow down, to take up a hobby perhaps painting to relax. He agreed and started right away.The nex
An executive went to visit a doctor for a checkup. He showed signs of overwork and stress. The doc warned him to slow down, to take up a hobby perhaps painting to relax. He agreed and started right away.The nex
Many years ago, I fell sick with a near fatal illness. Most people gave up on me, except God. After getting back on my feet, I remember conducting a choir, in which my gift to the people was the song, “Nothin
The first reaction after an act of terror, is to start looking suspiciously at the community from which the terrorist came from. In our anger against the dastardly act, in our reaction against the sometimes viv
The white bearded chief of the village and his bald deputy were at it again; discussing matters of great importance for which they walked out of earshot of all the villagers who actually were not too keen to kn
At the wedding of one my daughter's many friends and relatives offered to help, “Bob, if there’s any help you need, just ask!”Being in a naughty mood I asked her, “In what way can you help?”“Any way
Something that all religious leaders, prophets and spiritual people always did and do, is to retire to places where they are alone and where they can be still. We see this with Buddha, with Christ and I doubt t
Today is Children's Day! We’re still in the middle of Diwali and as I hear the sound of crackers burst mostly by children and their parents, at timings which the High Courts and other courts have said no to,
When I go to hear a friend or colleague speak, or attend a service, I love sitting in as inconspicuous a place as possible. There are many reasons for doing so, one, because I’ve come for the specific purpose
Even as I see most of us jumping from one activity to another, I wonder what ever happened to the moments in between. When I teach students how to write a play, I remind them that it is not just dialogue that m
Robert ClementsYes, there’s music in the booing of a crowd. A music that lies within us and will only start playing when hardship or challenges or the booing of friends and enemies stirs us to try even harder
Robert ClementsAnd as my next book, which is short stories from all over India, gets ready to be published and appear in stores and bookshops, I wonder what sort of world it would be without books.Years ago, as
The bearded village chief and his bald deputy walked to the edge of the village for their weekly conference. This way they kept away from prying eyes and snooping ears. His bald deputy was a little disconcerted
I was surprised to see a friend’s wife grinning at me this morning. My friend, a retired colonel, was a friendly sort of fellow, but his wife acted as if I were a foot soldier, too junior to converse with."Ho
The initial reaction over the bomb blast in Kerala, was that it was either a Muslim or Hindu group targeting Christians, and there was a lot of furore around why they would do so. Luckily it was not a member of
One day while walking in the park I accidentally brushed past a man. "Sorry!" I said."Thank you!" he replied.I walked on a little puzzled, wondering whether I'd heard right, and then slowed down waiting for him
Many years ago I found that the best way to conduct a meeting was to remain calm when harsh words were thrown at you, and I learned a lot from trying to feed my dog who was not too interested in eating "Eat!" I
Being driven around Bhopal and watching pedestrians on the road, off the road and nearly on top of the cars and other vehicles, my imagination started working overtime:The two men walking right in the middle of