Being an Amateur Radio Operator (HAM), listener of the shortwave bands on the radio (SWL and BC Dxer) and sports enthusiast over the years, I really find appaling at the state of leisure and pastime activities of the youth of today. They really do not have time for any leisure. It is studies - projects - homework/ internals - exams - etc. Else they are glued to the computer brousing the websites. I remember the days I used to spend listening to the shortwave radio stations from around the world. I used to spend hours trying to identify weak and feeble signals through all the interference. The patience would be tested as just when the identification was expected, some one in the neighbourhood would switch on their mixie. So it would be back again same time same frequeny next day. We had that kind of time. We could relax with a novel in hand, radio giving out music at any time of the day. What is leisure these days? Anybody have time for hobbies? I doubt it. This could be a reason for all the stress we face today.
Just like I have said. People these days do not have the leisure to have any hobbies or past times. The number of people having no time to even open the topic to see what is mentioned inside gives an indication of how little people think of hobbies these days. Anyone willing to discuss hobbies on this forum?
Quite right Mr. Madhukar. People generally don't have hobbies these days due to lack of time, I suppose. End of the day is the time to switch on the idiot box, weekends to laze around and watch more stuff on the idiot box. Vacation times is usually traveling out these days. If that can come under leisure and hobbies, perhaps people may write some of their experiences.
Children and youth should have had hobbies since they have time on their hands, at least we did during our youth. I guess these days with classes and private tuitions and junk television taking up all the time, perhaps kids these days don't have any time either. Some grown ups do have hobbies such as collecting antiques, vintage cars and bikes (the rich ones anyway), paintings and a lot of people these days travel when they have time to take a break. I personally don't know anyone who collects stamps and coins these days. Browsers and bloggers on this site perhaps don't have any hobbies and thats why there aren't many replies.
Your view is true in the present day life, Capt. Murhty. But does it help to drain your batteries at one stretch - for 11 1/2 months a year and try to recharge it in 15 days of vacation at the year end? Having worked with batteries for the last 12 years, I know what happens in that case. The life of the battery is reduced by almost 30%. Dont we take time out to eat, sleep, read the newspaper, watch the "idiot box"? Can we not spare a few minutes to relax? Next comes the question - What is relaxation? As one of my mentors explains "not doing what you have been doing the entire day is rest/relaxation". Vacation and travel comes under relaxation. You can let go of all your regular duties for a short period. Hobbies are activities done once in a while as a diversion from the normal activity that you are required to do on a daily basis. It is also an activity that interests you. Stamp and Coin Collection, collecting antiques/ vintage cars/bikes (rightly mentioned by Capt. Murthy as limited to the rich ones) are hobbies as the activity interest the person. We had hobbies like pen friendship,collecting match box labels, pens, keychains, etc. These are general hobbies. There are more sophesticated ones like photography, bird watching, etc. Technical hobbies include building electronic gadgets for the house, listening to and identifying long distance radio stations - sending them a signal report (most stations welcome this as many of such broadcasts are not meant for the territory from where they get the report) - collect verification cards, Radio communication (licenced radio operators - HAM - an advancement over pen friendship), etc. These activities are more out of personal interest and mostly an individual activity in a family. Travel is more a group activity and will certainly fall into the relaxation category. The list of such hobbies are also limitless. Most people seldom discuss their hobbies with others. My intention of starting this topic was to start people into sharing their interests with others. Who knows there may be otheres with the same interests in this group. It may lead to more informative discussions. Madhukar
