Not that I had my childhood in 90’s and that makes it a great decade. 90’s was indeed the best era in many ways. The computer was still not widespread and hence the correspondence used to happen via letters. Book reading, letter writing, physical activities (cycling/swimming/riding) were at its peak. Things were simple, life was less complicated, our only worry was to get good grades at school. Crushes were limited to the boys in our classrooms, heartbreaks were genuinely sweet. There were just two tv channels and the only cartoons at our disposal were Pink Panther, Tom and Jerry, Thunder Cats, Captain Planet, Bionic Six and Ninja Turtles. Everything about our childhood hobbies was supremely innocent and beautiful.

Btw, I was a nerd when I was a kid. And I’m not proud of this today :/ Was never sporty, just like most of the girls of Pakistan, but always found my nose in reading books or writing. My childhood hobbies were stamp collection, writing ‘dear diary’, listening to music and reading fiction.

With letters, used to come a lot of stamps. we used to buy International stamps from the book stores. The best bookstore that I remember was the one close to my grand mother’s house. They also provided books on rent. Hence, buying stamps and reading books on rent were the ultimate highlight of our nani’s place.

Having a big family is a blessing in many ways. You don’t need to go out and make many friends to play with. I used to play games with my siblings. We would swap the stamps amongst ourselves and keep the interest alive so after buying stamps, we would exchange them to get new countries on board. We all had our separate stamp books. When I got married, I brought one of my stamp books with me as a memory … memory because this hobby is totally extinct now, thanks to email!

There was a time when Lady Diana and her family would get a special photoshoot done to circulate the royal stamps from the great Britain. I’ll be genuinely happy to know if they continue to do the same!

Another hobby of mine was writing a diary. Actually, it was my father’s desire that all his kids write diaries. So every year, he would hand out one to all of us as the new year gift. He himself is writing one for the past sixty years and I do recall one cabinet in our old house which has all of his diaries – how cool is that?

I was always good at mathematics and today I want to give full credit to listening to music. I had a Sony walkman with me that I would turn on to do my homework. You may say that listening to music wasn’t a hobby anymore, it was my support system and my ultimate companion to finish school work.

PTV had a 15 minute slot in the morning for Pink Panther. We would watch it religiously before going to school at 7:15 AM. Then, NTM (the only other channel) would put on cartoons for half an hour in the evening everyday. That’s when I became acquainted with Ninja Turtles. I think I have watched more cartoons now (while feeding my kid) as a mother than the time when I actually deserved it 😐

My first trip to Karachi from God knows where!

Then we would cycle around the whole colony in the evening. It was a must-do kind of an activity especially when my father was posted in small cities and we had a 5-10 kanal house and a quiet colony at our disposal.

Then with time, Scrabble, Monopoly, Ludo, Cards and UNO silently found its way to our home. We had a full house all the time and didn’t know back then what it is like to be bored? Or if there existed any such term :O) Today, a three year old would come to you and tell you that he is getting bored – despite having access to a wide range of activities we were totally unaware of at our times :/

Nintendo came late and with this video game, opened up a pandora box of constant fight. Everyone seemed to be waiting for his turn. It was a total addiction. We became couch potatoes for many years with the coming of this new member at home. The final nail to the coffin of all our physical activities was a desktop machine when it came to our house back in 1997. Who didn’t want to explore the big monster called internet? Mindless Chatting rooms like miRc and mind-numbing card games such as Solitare started eating up all our time without us knowing that something unnatural has started happening.

I can’t imagine how time flew and all these hobbies got wiped away. Stamp and coin collection are totally gone, book reading is becoming less of a fad. Cycling in the evening? no way! Today, all our kids know is an Ipad, laptop or a mobile phone. Convenient it is for the mom to give one gadget to her kid and hire this cheap nanny for hours when she gets her me-time. But gone are the days when children had hobbies. Watching videos on mobile phone cannot possibly qualify to be called a hobby so I wonder what would our children say if they are asked what their pastimes are?

My daughter is only two and a half and we (both my husband and I) have principally agreed not to give her mobile phone. And we don’t have Ipad at home either. I have no idea how long we can go on like this but for a start-up, things look under control. She understands this restriction and thankfully don’t insist on using phone either. I think it is good to let our children get bored. Boredom brings all sorts of ideas and makes a human mind creative.

Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates raised their kids as being very low-tech parents. Gates forbade his daughter to use mobile phone until the age of 14. Jobs didn’t allow his kids to use iPad although they both made a fortune out of technology. They both understood how dangerous it is to use a mobile phone to kill the creative side of a human brain. The brain just stops thinking !

Few months ago, husband and I went to a restaurant. There was a long queue, thanks to both of us for not making the reservation. A couple had given a mobile phone to their 4-5 year old kid. We remained there for 40 minutes at least and the kid didn’t raise his head once to see what was happening around. Honestly, the kid was so engrossed that it made me twitch. He didn’t look okay at all but the parents didn’t seem to bother.

No parents are perfect but they don’t want to do something bad to their kids either. I don’t know whether giving mobile phone and iPad at such a tender age comes under lack of awareness or their ultimate escape route so they can do something else other than looking after the kids when no one else is around to help them.

Children come with a lot of responsibility. Remember my post that I wrote on my first born and motherhood? Well, having a child doesn’t only mean taking care of his physical needs – it is about making a whole human being all by yourself and this my friend, is a tough job!

Anyway, the take away from this writing should be to have a hobby – at all ages. Having hobbies doesn’t only guarantee a good time pass – it strengthens the creativity bud of ours and also helps making memories.

So, until then – enjoy this hobby of mine and indulge in one of yours 🙂