Hobbies is an Addiction

The word hobby is derived from ‘hobby horse’ which is a, stick fitted with a wooden horse’s head which children ride astride for their amusement. We still talk of a man ‘riding’ his hobby. So a hobby is an amusement, properly it is any interesting pursuit not our main business, which we take up for our amusement in our leisure time. What is business to one man may be a hobby of another, for example, a photographer may have gardening as his hobby and a paid gardener may go in for photography as his recreation.

Despite one’s tight schedule at work or in school or college, all of us have some leisure time. It is how one spends one’s time that is important. There are many ways of one’s favourite pass time. Gardening, stamp collecting, coin collecting, photography, painting, fishing, skiing, surfing, skating, horse riding and so on. But reading between the lines, watching TV and playing cricket cannot be considered as hobbies.

Why TV watching is not considered as a hobby? Because, hobby means leisure time spent in some activity. But while watching TV we simply sit and stare at the lighted screen, not doing anything, like an idiot! Hence, TV is called as an Idiot box!

Of all the hobbies, gardening is a very nice one. When the plants bloom with flowers that not only look beautiful but also waft sweet fragrance, it rewards our hard work done earlier.

However, having a garden nowadays is ruled out to many due to space constraint unless one lives in an independent house gardening is not possible. One can’t afford to keep plants in apartments, again for want of space.

However, that doesn’t prevent one from having other hobbies. Photography is equally interesting and rewarding. Some newspapers and magazines invite amusing or funny photos that arouse humour. A rare photograph is worth passing on to generations.

Painting stimulates one’s creative talents. Raja Ravi Verma’s paintings still remain unparalleled. They all look so lively as if photographed. Thus, painting makes a good and headily hobby and a great saying about it also says that ‘Arts conceals art’.

Fishing is another worthwhile time passing. What it teaches is reward for patience!” When we catch a sting of fish, it not only provides a good meal but the very thought about having caught a large number of fish, is indeed, pleasing.

Skating, skiing and surfing are not popular in our country. These require great deal of courage, dedication and hard work. Of all these three, surfing is rather risky. It involves not only courage, but also many other qualities like, mental allergies, bodily movement, quick thinking and above all excellent training in sea swimming.

It is seldom that such hobbies are practiced in India. Come to think of it, though India is a big country with hefty population, we still lag behind in many aspects. That is one of the reasons why India is not been able to win gold medal in Olympics.

While some people may choose to focus on one particular hobby, others may choose to have several different hobbies. Some people choose playing sports, fishing, hunting, or music as a past time. I myself have several different things I enjoy doing in my spare time.