When heroes fall!!!

Was thinking of writing something since the last few days. But somehow was not able to come up with any topic, interesting enough to excite my brain cells.

Then suddenly one fine morning I read about the 'Oscar Pistorious case' in the newspaper. Honestly speaking, I was not aware about him before the famous or rather infamous Valentine’s Day shootout. Since then I am following this case like anything. Came across one such article today where I read that he was the first double amputee runner to compete atOlympicsalongside able bodied athletes. His records are nothing short of magic.

Anyways this post is not about Oscar Pistorious or his histrionics.Rather all those people who have fallen from grace during the recent times. Lance Armstrong is one such classic example. Before writing anything on him let me first confess I am a huge Lance Armstrong fan. Yes, I still am. For me and thousands of other sporting enthusiasts, he was a hero. Someone who overcame cancer to win seven consecutive Tour de France. So obviously I was completely stunned when I read about Armstrong’s confession to Oprah Winfrey. Within a weeks’ time he went from being one of world’s all time sporting legend to a cheater, a doper and God knows what else. Similar was the case of Tiger Woods who went from being the most successful golfer of all time, a perfect family man to a sex addict, a national joke. We have many such examples from other fields as welllike Bill Clinton, Ramalinga Raju, Phaneesh Murthy, Rajat Gupta and so on. All these men were geniuses in themselves. Heroes, who lost everything because of the choices they made in life.

But the thing that often crosses my mind whenever something like this happens is ‘Public memory is so short’. In matter of a second that person becomes a villain. He/she becomes the butt of so many jokes. Sporting stars are stripped off their medals. All their sponsors pull out. In some extreme cases they are even jailed.They start appearing in Forbe magazine’s lists like most hated sportsman, entrepreneur, politician, etc. like what happened in the case of Armstrong. All their achievements are washed out just like that.
But is this kind of treatment fair? My take on this is little different. I feel everything in life cannot be in Black or White. Most of the times its grey. But the mass is generally very judgmental. For us, a person can either be a hero or a villain.

I think though these people might have made wrong choices in life, we should not forget their achievements. If you ask me I still want to become as emotionally strong as Lance Armstrong. Someone who despite being diagnosed with advanced stage of testicular cancer not only overcame it but was a living example of the fact that “where there is a will, there is a way”. Then we have a Bill Clinton whom I always consider as a survivor. Someone who despite having faced an impeachment was successfully able to finish his second termin white house. There is also a Ramalinga Raju who laid the foundation of an IT giant Satyam. There are many such examples.

Though I am not trying to justify the mistakes these people committed. All I mean is we should not be always black and white in our opinion about these people. But whatever the opinion be, there will always be an outcry, a brouhaha because that’s what happens “When heroes fall!!!.”