In India, many people do not have any leisure but even those who have, do not know how to spend it. The problem of devising ways and means to spend one’s leisure time faces the rich and the poor people alike.
Many people misuse whatever leisure they have at their disposal. The rich whileaway their time in clubs or restaurants or throwing parties for their friends and relatives. The poor people spend it in day-dreaming or gossiping. This is the worst way of spending one’s free time. Those who day-dream ultimately feels disappointed when such dreams do not come true in actual life. This leads to despair, despondency and nervous breakdown. Likewise, gossip and idle talk results in wastage of energy. One who is given to gossiping loses credibility even among his friends.
Utilisation of one’s leisure time properly calls for great ingenuity. While making a choice out of many ways of spending our free time, we should ensure that it restores our lost energy and keeps us cheerful. There is a wide range and variety of hobbies. Naturally, the hobby that suits our aptitude, temperament and our budget would be the best.
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Let us first consider photography. No doubt it is an expensive hobby and, therefore, more suitable for the rich. One can spend one’s time by taking snaps of scenes, people and places that we visit or see. Stamp collecting is also an interesting hobby. People collect in their albums stamps of different countries and of different periods of history. If a stamp is very rare, it commands a huge price. Sometimes this hobby can prove to be very rewarding.
Those who live in bungalows or houses with some vacant land attached to these can take to gardening. When plants which you had sowed and nursed with water day in and day out bloom, you feel a great sense of achievement. Gardening keeps the environment of one’s house neat and clean. It can also provide us with fresh vegetables. If there is a river or a lake near your house, you can do boating. Boating is a hobby as well as an exercise. Music can provide us entertainment. By playing musical instruments like sitar, violin or flute we can not only entertain ourselves but also the people around us.
However, if, for any reason, one is not able to take to any of these hobbies, one can just keep a diary and go on recording one’s daily experiences. When one opens one’s diary after some years, one can refresh one’s memory about one’s past life and events.
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Better still, one can develop a habit for reading books. Books are the best companions of man. One can read novels, short stories, biographies, magazines me or periodicals. Reading not only entertains us but also increases our knowledge. If one has an aptitude for teaching, one can teach any illiterate adult of one’s locality. In this way one will also be rendering social service.
This is not all. If the weather is favourable, one can go on a cycling tour or on a walking trip to make the best use of one’s leisure time. These tours and trips can enable one to see one’s surroundings, meet new people and establish contacts with them. Going on a picnic on a week-end is also a good idea.
Stevenson, a well known author of the 19th century, in his essay “An Apology for Idlers” condemned over-work and over-business. He advised; that one should find time to go into a park and relax, to enjoy a smoke, to speak to passers-by, to play on a musical instrument, to bask in the sun, to meditate-I in short to do anything which is not called “work”. An over-busy man is a curse to himself and to the society.
Bertrand Russell, a famous writer and philosopher, also condemned the stupid hurry and the over-work of modern life. He believed in relaxation and recreation.