Outline:
- What is a hobby? Define it.
- Different hobbies which appeal to various people.
- My hobby is photography. It is one which will always be interesting.
- It is also a hobby which may well be made profitable.
A hobby may be defined as an occupation which gives – pleasure and amusement to a person, and which he carries on of his own accord, simply because he likes it. There is no compulsion about a hobby, but it arises purely from personal taste. Every boy or girl should have a hobby for spare time, for as the poet said:
“Absence of occupation is not rest.
A mind quite vacant is mind distressed.”
Since it depends on personal taste, it follows that there are many different hobbies. Some find it interest to collect used postage stamps from all the different countries of the world. Others who are mechanically minded like to work with machinery, to take bicycles or radio-sets to pieces and assemble them again. Another may be fond of fretwork or painting, or of observing the habits of birds and animals in the jungle. A hobby has a beneficial effect on the mind and prevents one from ever becoming dull and in low spirit.
My favourite hobby is photography. It started for me when my uncle sent me a No.2 Kodak from Karachi three years ago. I soon became keenly interested in taking pictures of my friends and of the scenes about my home. At first I had my plates developed and printed by professional photographers, but gradually I became ambitious to be able to do this for myself. I had little room in our home fitted up as a dark room, and now I am able to develop and finish my own films. By doing this, I have learned a good deal about chemistry.
I have three large albums filled with photographs of various kinds. They will always remind me of the happy scenes and the kind of friends of my boyhood. The poet Wordsworth said that the memory of a beautiful scene, like the daffodils growing beside a lake, could be carried in the mind and give pleasure in the future. But it is better to have a snapshot to increase pleasure. Moreover if ever I should be in need of employment, my hobby would enable me to earn a livelihood.
