Hobbies for today's urban youth

Two decades back 'hobby' was a fancy term and youth while preparing their resume used to give some traditional leisure activity like coin, stamp collecting, listening to music etc as hobbies.

Nowadays there is a sea change in taking up hobbies by youth today. Due to the revolution in electronic media the scope for hobbies has taken a u turn.

Music and dance were for the elite previously. But today not only classical music & dance but also light classical and even choreography for cine music have become passion among youth which can be noticed in ever increasing demand for the same in visual media all over the country. No doubt there is a spurt in learning vocal and traditional instruments like violin and veena, the choice of modern youth nowadays is keyboard playing where both classical and modern can be practiced

The other powerful media is the electronic media. Youth have their own blogs created and express and exchange their views. They also add flavour and colour by loading pictures taken by digi camera. Photography was once a costly hobby. Today digi camera has changed the concept and people, especially youth, fully exploit the use and develop their skills. They, if join as a group, even venture to take 10 minutes small film in the form of a documentary.

We now see colleges having their own FM audio channels and communicate widely with others. They show enormous interest in all aspects like comparing, writing, scripting, acting and also conducting programmes. Innovative events are conducted with some social cause which vouches for their independent thinking and self confidence

Due to advent of multimedia the age old arts like drawing and painting have touched different heights. Youth nowadays can design anything through different multimedia softwares. They do dress/costume designing and also jewellery designing apart from their own web sites designing.

Sports, the other side of development in youth has seen a manifold growth in the recent times. Coaching classes for indoor games like carom, chess, table tennis, billiards and even bridge are available throughout the year apart from outdoor games like cricket and football. Youth today have become fitness conscious and so they frequent gyms and also take up swimming coaching.

Now we move on to gardening and cooking. Sounds like feminine hobbies? No, men show equal interest as there is awareness among youth to have quality food and so maintaining kitchen gardens, and preparing low calorie high fibrous food.

We sometimes hear a murmur that book reading habit among youth has decreased. But we see serpentine queues in front of bookstall when Harry Potter new volume is released. We also see overwhelming response to books exhibitions conducted in the city. Today youth use the internet to read new books and also research materials.

Those who have a flair for teaching take on-line tuition to students in UK and USA, and that gives them a different kind of experience and it also fetches money. Further some even take pleasure in reading books for the blind as a service.

People with expertise in software come out with innovative ideas and do extensive research in all walks of life. Those who want to be away from their PC for sometime and relax take up other skills like carpentry as their hobby and create beautiful artifacts.

We also see a recent trend of volunteering local events by youth. They get a hand on training in event management. Those who can interact freely with others can even develop their socializing talents by doing service in their leisure time in hospitality sectors.

Youth is the right phase of life when anything of interest can be learnt with ease. Hence it is advisable to learn as many things as possible. Who knows one among the varied hobbies may one day become the career of the individual.