“Excellent fruit sir! Sweet and tasty! Just look at the skin!”I looked at the fruit and there was no doubt in my mind they were ripe and ready for eating. I wondered whether the fruit vendor could see I was
Saturday, 18th October, 2025
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Bob’s Banter
I sat in my seat next to the window, in the airbus that was taking me from Bangalore to Bombay yesterday, and heard the voice of the pilot over the PA system, “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “We will be
My father was a good, honest man with brilliant plans and ideas, but a poor businessman. Maybe there are some people who shouldn’t get into business, and he was one of them, but he always felt it was the city
“Window Opener-Wallah?” you shout across to me, “What exactly do you mean?”“Ah well,” I say, “What happens when you open your windows in the morning after getting up?”“I let the sunshine in!-
As I see people talking about ‘targeting a youngster’ and ‘vindictive government’ I wonder who takes the blame when a boy or girl, maybe a young man or woman, does something wrong? Something, that sadde
He was staring at his phone, as I sat next to him on the bench in the park, “Terrible!” he exclaimed.“What is?” I asked, staring at his distraught face.“I put up a new picture of myself on Facebook, a
"Shake hands!" people tell my dog while bending over to pet it, "Shake hands!" they shout as my huge fellow looks blankly at them. "Doesn't your dog know to shake hands?" they ask looking disgustedly at me."No!
Ever so often in my childhood, the book I carried out of the library was one called ‘Waterbabies’. My heart went out to some of the little children of London whose job it was to clean chimneys. With long br
As the monsoon recedes I find many of my umbrellas borrowed quite often without me knowing, suddenly returning, just when I don’t need them anymore, and looking at them today, brought back memories of their a-
As I see the infighting in our country and across the world, over construction of mosque or Jewish temple, and church or other religious shrines, or hear arguments, even threats over the opening of religious pl
Was rather perplexed to hear that more old couples were filing for divorce than ever before, “But why would people in their old age move to end decades of togetherness?” I wondered and walked to the park fo
Much before the pandemic I looked at a motley lot of people who had come to me to learn the art of public speaking from me. As I began the talk my heart sank; they looked anything but people who would one day g
So many of us lead two lives, one for the public and another that is private; most often the private one isn’t fit for public scrutiny: I wonder how it would be if every time we did something bad in our priva
“You know,” says a complaining voice, “If only I’d been born healthy like you, I feel likewise: J.F. Rowlands of South Africa was once holidaying in the south of France when he met a
“Shout ‘HOW!”“How!” I shouted.“It means good!”“How” means ‘good’ in Chinese?” I asked with a smile.The young man smiled and nodded and we both went back to watching the program. He was S
A few years ago I wrote a play for a church in which I showed people during prayer time. I showed one man mouthing his prayers but looking out of the window at the traffic outside, another yawning while the oth
A patient told his dentist, “I can feel a huge cavity with my tongue,” The dentist examined the man’s teeth and said, “It’ll only be a small filling.”“But why does it feel so large?” asked the p
I do believe, all our driving skills are seen not in how fast we drive, not with our ease of overtaking, our dexterity of working our way through traffic jams, but with how you and I park our cars!My wife and d
While taking a class on public speaking in the academy I run, I told my class how important public speaking was in life. Many of us I told my students would not get opportunities to speak on podiums or stages,
A man who had just lost his job went over to a shop and with the last of his money decided to buy a beautiful teacup for his wife. On the display shelf, he saw the perfect cup and told the sales person to take
