- A hobby is an occupation in which a man voluntarily engages himself either for relaxation or for passing leisure hours.
- An idle brain is a devil’s workshop.
- Man’s clover brain has invented numerous hobbies (a) Card-games (b) Stamp-collecting (c) Rowing
A hobby should be regarded just as a mental recreation. One of the aspects of the progress of civilization is the invention and cultivation of hobbies. A hobby is an occupation in which a man voluntarily engages himself either for relaxation or for passing leisure hours. Hobbies have great value. After the strain of a day’s hard work, one feels refreshed by indulging in some hobby. A hobby chases away fatigue and restores mental energy; one can completely forget oneself in the pursuit of it. A professor, a lawyer, a doctor, a student, a housewife will all get considerable pleasure by spending a couple of hours daily in the exercise of a hobby. Hobbies greatly add to the interest of life. [the_ad id=”17141″]
Besides serving as restoratives and mental tonics, hobbies are an excellent way of coding one’s leisure. A man canton easily abuse or misuse his leisure. The worst way of passing leisure hours is just to sit idle and do nothing. An idle brain is a devil’s workshop. One must not, therefore, remain idle because one will necessarily think mission or weaken one’s brain by developing a habit of sheer laziness. Hobbies fill up one’s leisure hours most admirably. They relieve the monotony of work.
Man’s clever brain has invented numerous hobbies. Strange, curious and interesting hobbies have been invented for man’s delight and recreation hobbies that not only keep a man pleasantly busy but also excite and thrill him. They create in him a warm enthusiasm and a keep appetite for wholesome and healthy pastimes. One can, therefore, make one’s own choice. The range of bobbies is very large and one can select a hobby that suits one’s taste and temperament. There are quite hobbies calling forth no great effort of the mind or body; there are hobbies that enable one to enjoy the company of one’s friends, and there are hobbies that require a full-blooded effort on one’s part and call into play the maximum enthusiasm one is capable of.
To begin with, there are countless card-games. There are games for one, two, three or more persons and games of all degrees of interest. But instead of playing them for the sake of pleasure alone, one is likely to start playing them for money. This is harmless if one plays for low stakes, merely to add to the interest of the game; but usually, it leads to gambling in its worst form. A more innocent hobby is photography. The camera is a wonderful invention of science. With a light hand camera loaded with a film, one can spend all one’s leisure moving about and taking photographs of interesting scenes or people. One must, of course, develop the photos oneself and learn all the technique about it. Unfortunately, the rise in prices has made photography a very expensive hobby.[the_ad id=”17142″]
Many people are the food of stamp collecting as a hobby. They possess several albums containing stamps of various countries. They is always on the lookout for a new stamp and whenever they scen cavalope bearing a foreign stamp in the hands of a friend, by beg leaves to remove it (and they will do it with the utmost care) and add it to their precious collection. Such albums, indeed, look very beautiful as they contain a variety of pictorial stamps of all countries. Stamp.collecting has no limits, and a collection Dever has an end. Countries are always printing and issuing new stamps to celebrate great events, anniversaries and deaths. A stamp has a fascination, all its own. There is a history in a stamp. We see famous men writers, scientists, soldiers statesmen-On stamps and we witness famous incidents. Stamps, so small in size, contain knowledge that is important and vast. Or, again, people who are so lucky as to live in bungalows or houses with large lawns or compounds often develop a love of gardening. It is most interesting to sow the seeds, prune the beds, and look after the plants with almost paternal care.
Rowing is an excellent hobby if there is a river or lake near one’s town and a boat available. Rowing builds the muscles of one’s arms, also besides affording plenty of delight. But one should never, out of a spirit of adventure, make the experiment of swimming in a river when it is in flood. While rowing a boat, one often feels tempted to plunge into the river to prove one’s capacity for swimming and this sometimes proves fatal. Taking long walks or hitchhiking is another vigorous hobby. Some people spend their evening hours in summer in a swimming pool. Keeping pets, like cats and dogs, is another common hobby. Playing upon a musical instrument like the sitar or violin is a hobby worth cultivating.
It is worth pointing out that we should never ride a hobby to the bard. We should not make a toil of pleasure. In other words, we should not indulge a hobby to such an extent as to convert it into a dull, cheerless task. A hobby should be regarded just as a mental recreation, not as an end in itself. People often develop such a passion for their hobbies first and their real work second. This is very undesirable. Everything in moderation should be the rule.
