The Phelps Drama

Michael Phelps was caught on a candid photo which showed him inhaling from a marijuana pipe. People all over the world lapped up this information about their swimming champ. The number of critics that raised their voice is astounding. The sports clubs, fan presidents, etc etc were out to disown him due to the act committed by the once highly decorated sports person. And this felicitation was not too far long back.

I know and understand that smoking any kind of drugs is not good due to its addictive nature, ya da ya da ya da!! We all know the drill but what comes out of this incident is that I think it’s about time that people stopped idolizing certain celebrities and realise that they are also human. They want and they have the right to make a mistake. They need not have to apologise to the whole freaking world to save their sponsorship. It’s a different deal if it was a repetitive behaviour which gets people concerned about his health and the sponsors about their money. We tend to exert pressure on these “sports idols” to be the perfect role model for us.

Make him apologise for regrettable behaviour and bad judgement. Force him into acting because you dream of him in a particular way. It is a price to pay for fame. But still!

No one recognises the amount of unwavering devotion he must have given to his swimming practices. I understand he is an inspiration for many young aspiring athletes but why should we be afraid of all these youngsters only taking the photo into consideration? Would you wish to live your life under constant scrutiny, criticisms? How many of you want to do pot, get caught on camera for the kicks and not see that picture on the front page of sports news?

Not me!

Compromise on the hush of a library

I had a hundred arguments running through my head the minute I finished reading Lyn Brown’s article about how libraries with strict rules need to be replaced by upgrading them to a culturally rich centre to avoid being shut down.

Do I believe that a "long overdue revolution" would save these libraries? I think it eventually might but I am really not up for that change.

I don’t think that I fall within the brackets of “the ageing band of traditionalists who shrink in horror at change.” Although what I do believe is that the concept of “culturally enhancing the libraries” with a dash of jazz in the evenings every Friday night or even having coffee whilst being engrossed in Shakespearean Sonnets will disrupt the peace each person enjoys in that limited space.

Imagine a group of people loudly discussing about the evolution of the universe while you are reading economics or someone slurping (not in a manner less fashion but merely distracted by the book in hand) their coffee which rudely steals you away from your walk with Robert Frost. A whisper into the phone can distract, the swirling whiffs of freshly ground coffee beans can distract. You are effectively ripped away from your book.

I love reading a book with loud music but I wouldn’t want to disturb or encroach into another person’s space, way of reading the same way I wouldn’t want someone to poke into mine. In my opinion, the lessening readership in libraries are partly due to e-books, and also the dying culture, of loading books every week from a library or sitting in silence where each mind is processing knowledge, which my parents taught me to and which I have always loved. More than buying them or reading them from a screen! But I do hate to admit I haven’t been a regular visitor to one. May be from now onwards I will.