Hobbies: Revived!

As a kid, when someone asked me about my hobbies, I would say reading or maybe painting. Yes reading was something I really liked as a school kid and a local library was my frequently visited place. Equally interested in painting, I would spend time trying to draw landscapes, nature and some stills. Those were the days when life spared enough time to pursue these activities.

But soon things changed and as I got through to high school and college, I let go of these hobbies under the pretext that there wasn't enough time. And what was I doing when I had spare time? Lazying around the house or watching TV while relaxing on the sofa. These aimless waste-of-time activities soon filled up my routine and I was finding it difficult even to read the daily newspaper in the morning. Probably it was lack of commitment or plain laziness on my part that I never opened a book in past seven years.

Hey don't mistake these for college books at all. Doing an engineering course leaves you immersed in loads of technical books, each one thicker than the other. Tackling study volume came naturally to me and the fat books never intimidated me. But I was loosing touch with the reader within me. Finally graduation was through, that too with flying colors. All the pain-staking technical reading had paid off. By then the reader in me had gone dormant. Nothing interested me anymore; No books, newspaper, magazines or novels. It was back to being a couch potato wasting all the time in front of the idiot box catching MTV, FTV and the likes. The painter within me had also died long before. Things weren't right. But I wasn't complaining either.

Soon job became a priority, sometimes demanding fourteen hours or more a day. Frustrations would reach their peak bringing along lot of restlessness. It was then that I found solace in books again. Reading interesting spy novels, thrillers, occasional self help books for motivation and learning way of life. The more I read, the more my curiosity aroused. I always knew that books were a man's best friends and I was certainly embracing them after a long time. I would spend weekends shopping for books and have quite some collection now. I won't say I have a voracious appetite for books as yet, but I am definitely getting there.

Reading novels also brought a creative writer in me to life. I used to maintain a diary, much like a daily journal, where I would write about the job frustrations, aspirations in life and vent out some anger as well. Writing the diary did not last for long, but when a fellow friend introduced me to blogging, it was a whole new world for the creative me. I have been blogging for more than a year now and though I only have a small fan following, it is the process that I enjoy rather than the outcome. Writing a blog, telling some story has its own ecstasy. Wonder if I can join some course to enhance my creative writing. The search in on. Maybe someday I will write a book.

Another hue got added to this spectrum of reviving hobbies. With a recent purchase of a high end digital camera, I find myself intrigued by digital photography as well. And though I am a novice, I am finding it irresistible to find more material that will teach me the basics. With sufficient practice, I will gradually start taking better pictures. Maybe photo-blogging could be my next venture. Who knows!

The journey of this revival seems to have just started and I will definitely make more time to nurture it. Throw the i-have-no-time excuse out of the window and start making good use of it. Seems, it is not about how much time you have got, but what good can you make of it. So next time someone asks me about my hobbies, I will have many interesting stories to tell.