De-stress: find your ideal hobby

Preetha Shankar

In a fast-paced world where everybody is kept busy with work or just distracting themselves by tapping away on their smartphones, hobbies are taking a seat in the back of our busy and technology-driven lives. But for those who want to indulge themselves in activities that distract themselves from technology, finding an ideal hobby could be ideal.

For this express purpose, hobby centres in the city help people find out what they want to do in their spare time. Madhan Kumar of Let’s Do Something hobby centre says, “Our hobby centre was founded in 2009. From 2009 to 2012, we have had 150 kids registering with us.” Let’s Do Something helps children from the age of three and a half years to fourteen years engage in hobbies such as Bharatanatyam, Chess, Painting and drawing, Yoga, Photography and Music classes. They also arrange for unique courses like chocolate making workshops for those who like cooking, and have a tie-up with Vaels Billabong School. Madhan says, “Adults here lean towards taking up guitar classes to unwind. Most of the adults who come here are software employees who take up music classes such as guitar and drumming as a release from their hectic work hours.”  

Seema Sanghi, owner of Kalpataru Hobby Centre started the organisation in 2012, “I had just shifted to the East Coast Road area, and found out that there was no place for kids to learn fun activities. I had grown up children myself, and wanted to do something creative and useful. Thus, I started Kalpataru.” The centre teaches children activities such as art, yoga, karate, archery, music, dance, speech, and drama and personality development. Seema says, “Children like something that can engage them, and keep their attention from wavering.” She says age is no bar here, with kids as young as two and a half years to senior citizens aged sixty-five years old coming to the centre! She adds, “Adults here like painting, music, and craft activities like jewellery making, and Tanjore painting.” But she feels that hobby centres can help people, “Everybody wants to learn and keep busy but they don’t have the time. But one thing to keep in mind is that more than the adults, children need to de-stress because they are under constant pressure to perform.” 

Sara Abraham, a college student has found her perfect hobby in stamp collection, “It started when I saw a friend’s stamp collection and found inspiration, and the same friend gifted me a stamp. This happened to be the first one to my collection, and after that I started noticing stamps that come on the envelopes.” Sara started her stamp collection when she was studying in class 7, and there has been no looking back since then. She finds a certain specialty in stamp collection, “You get to know about a country’s culture and heritage through their stamps.” But she feels that people were more inclined towards hobbies in the past compared to now. She says about the value of the hobby in the days to come, “In the future, when these stamps are almost extinct, it will be a great fortune to possess them.”

Though hobbies are not a dying art form, they have somewhat lost their lustre. Hopefully, hobby centres can remind people that hobbies are a great way to not just de-stress but also find perhaps, wisps of their once bright childhood dreams.