Bob’s Banter

  • A Big Cheque..!
    It was a huge cheque I saw in the newspaper!Specially made for the occasion, designed for the publicity it would fetch. I looked closer at the newspaper picture, and saw that is was being given to some cancer-
  • Appeasing Minorities..!
    “Stop appeasing the minorities!” shout the majority in the country. Hearing these shouts, I decided to fairly and unbiasedly look into their angry cry. I did and realized how better to think of the country
  • Give Voice to the Voiceless..!
    Yesterday I was asked to speak at the Nirmala Niketan College in Mumbai about, “Giving a Voice to the Voiceless’. It seemed as I began to speak, I heard a whisper, “What If, you Bob should not be the spea
  • There’s A Purpose in Delays..!
    This happened a couple of weeks ago; a car coming down the opposite lane at breakneck speed climbed up the divider and before my astonished eyes turned a couple of times before coming to a standstill upside dow
  • Dare to Be A Billionaire..!
    “Amazing!” I exclaimed at what I was reading on a website, “Two-thirds of the world's 946 billionaires made their fortunes from scratch, relying on grit and determination, and not good genes.” I read on
  • Rewriting History..!
    Each successive government rewrites history, the way an author revises his books. “Look at this,” says a minister in my imagination, thumbing through a book of history, “it says the English built the rail
  • Henpecked Husbands..!
    Once in a while, when going with a friend to visit someone I am warned before I reach, “he is a henpecked husband!”“Oh!” I whisper, and go with quite some apprehensions of a wife pecking away at every s
  • Choosing Good Friends..!
    In my book, ‘DARE’ I have a chapter, ‘Dare to Make and Keep Friends’, but thought that today we could talk about choosing friends!As the old adage says, “A Man is known by the company he keeps” and
  • Don’t Smile at the Airhostess..!
    As countries open up and we Asians start flying again, I thought it imperative to write this little piece, which I also recommend you take with a pinch of salt, though there is some truth in it.Most Internation
  • Instead of Wooing Prashant Kishor..!
    Today, political rallies are all about candidates insulting each other. The days of dignified talk seem to be over, and just when I was beginning to feel sad about the bygone days, I suddenly started realizing
  • Cat’s Milk and Election Promises..!
    Robert ClementsShe greeted me like we were old friends, purring and wrapping herself round my legs, “Hey,” I said, “I don’t know you!” But from her friendly gestures I realized that, that didn’t mat
  • Putty, Paint and Professional Pretense..!
    Robert ClementsIt was a narrow bridge one climbed from once a lazy station, onto the road above.Elphinstone Road station in Mumbai was hardly used previously, except by mill workers of old, going to work or ret
  • Valentine’s Day Special..!
    Here’s something special on Valentine’s Day:We seem to think the best relationships are between like-minded people, but not necessarily at all. Instead of changing your wife or husband to your way of thinki
  • Risk It..!
    A few years ago a friend came to me with a brilliant idea which required him resigning from his job and setting up business. The scheme seemed well thought off and it was some years later we met again and I fou
  • Full Steam Ahead..!
    Many decades ago, on long train journeys, my father would take me to the end of the long platform and show me the mighty steam engine which pulled us. “Do you know how it works Bob?” he asked once. I shook
  • A Head Covering and Sweet Voice..!
    In the gigantic auditorium in Manila, in the Philippines, her voice richer than that of a nightingale filled the hall. We singers stood behind her. We were the choir she sang for, and felt proud, as the audienc
  • Lone Slipper on the Railway Track..!
    Robert ClementsHe had decided to end his life, and the place he had chosen was the railway track just before the last station, and just after the level crossing. He had given it careful thought, but decided he
  • Garbage Hacker..!
    The scream came from the bedroom, “Lizard?” I asked casually from the sitting room and found no reply, “Cockroach?” I shouted again, and again hearing no answer rushed to where the wife was, “What’s
  • Make Me A Match.!
    Matchmaker, Matchmaker,Make me a matchFind me a find,Catch me a catchMatchmaker, MatchmakerLook through your booksand make me a perfect match. And as the strains of Fiddler On The Roof's, Matchmaker chorus
  • A Nobel Prize for Fiction..!
    Just two weeks before the budget, a silver haired lady looked up from her writing as her economist husband approached her somewhere in the capital, “What are you writing this time?” he asked.“Giving the f
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