Addiction

Can CNN, ABC, BBC or any other news service, despite their worldwide reach, ever replace the simple pleasure of reading a newspaper?

Reading the newspaper every morning has become an addiction for me. The moment I finish my "water therapy" -- drinking one liter of plain water for health reasons -- every morning, a little later over my usual cup of coffee (another addiction), I must go through the day's newspaper. I become restless if I can't get my hands on the morning daily at the right time.

I realize the recent Lebaran holiday meant mandatory closure of the newspaper for two days but for us, the readers, the days were not complete without The Jakarta Post. It's not that we are keen to know what's going on in the world. On the contrary, sometimes the less we know of the depressing events, the better it is for all of us. It's just plain truth that for many of us, reading a newspaper has become a "compulsive" need every day.

You might call it an addiction, obsession, fixation or whatever you like but it's a fact that we miss something important in our daily routine.

Aren't we slaves to habit, albeit unwittingly?

D. CHANDRAMOULI

Jakarta