22.2.13

Hobbies

The dictionary defines a hobby as a leisure activity done regularly for pleasure. So, does it also mean that stamp (and other things) collecting, reading, writing, hearing music, watching movies, singing, dancing, playing the piano, travelling, swimming or playing any sport, playing with your pet all hobbies?

Not all in the above list can be called as hobbies – I think – because not all seem to be activities in the reasonable sense of the word. Hearing music can’t be a hobby and so is reading. Well, one might defend reading as a hobby, but I think only if some conditions prevail.

Classifying how we spend our time?

We spend our time either creating, or consuming or resting. If you think its stupid of me to make such a classification, then that would be fair. For instance, without consuming and resting – both which allow for maintenance – creating would be impossible. But the separation is still important to understand the essence of a hobby.

Defining A hobby

So, I’d like to define a hobby as an activity that results in a build up of a body of work – a tangible output. You may be a bird-watcher and so you might be maintaining a field diary of different birds you have seen, their photographs. Your inputs may include field guides, reference books, binoculars etc and above all, your dedication and time. May be then, a hobby is a lot like work, just a lot more fun.

Reading - say history books – too results in a build-up of historical insights. But I don’t think all types of reading can qualify. Most of it is passive and just doesn’t adds up. Like reading newspapers!

An activity should be such which requires application of the mind and that engages it and doing it makes you better at it. Your precision of that task improves.

Summing up a hobby is an activity you do regularly for pleasure, the task is absorbing and doing it makes you better at it.

My hobbies

I deliberate on writing, though I don’t think I write a lot. I like the aesthetics of words and the tranquilizing effect it has on the mind. It combs the mind and help organize my thought, like this essay.

I read books on history, economics health and fitness along with fiction. I want to especially gain some insights into evolution and the human body processes to be able to lead a healthy life.  I also want to try out origami, sketching and painting among other things.

4.8.12

Looking after our health, before the event

Last week, my father’s cousin passed away due to a cardiac arrest after he was admitted for some serious health irregularities sometime back.

He was in his early 40s, living in Jaipur with wife, two teenage sons and his brother’s family. Once his sickness got somewhat serious, the family went to Calcutta to get him treated, a city they lived in not so long time ago and for almost all their life.

In the aftermath, talking among each other, people reconciled the death as a pre-written destiny. That, only so many breaths were given to him. If he was to live, he would have been at the right place for the right treatment.

Who is to say this is not destiny, and something else, but I’d risk sticking my neck out and ask to take a longer look at it. I wonder how often heart failure occurs for pre-written reasons. And if we just think of it as the play of non-negotiable destiny, then we risk not learning at all. We continue to live overlooking our body’s well-being.

Peoples’ health, measured by either of the parameters - physical activity, weight, stomach flab, diet, etc. – are so average -average being very poor - that we have come to depend a good deal on doctors, as our internal life sustaining mechanisms continue to wither. And may be being stuck in this predicament is then our destiny.

In issues of health and most things in life, what we do ex-ante (before the fact) is more critical than things we do ex-post (after the fact), the very essence of the popular adage: Prevention is better than Cure.


Good Day, Shreekant

14.4.12

Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts.

I recommend: Essay contrasting technology and love by Jonathan Franzen