Why a Hobby Should Always Remain as a Hobby?

This led me to write about an experience with my Dad when he started Furniture Design & Manufacturing as a hobby in his spare time. I was just 7 or 8 years old. It started first as a one-room workshop. Since its location is by the road-side and commuters was his work and started asking him to design furniture for them. He took it provided a good amount of time is being provided and would often turn down their request, if the time frame is short.

His specialty till date is designing a Dashboard for the Ambassador car since it was a public mode of transport in Shillong, in the 90s. Every taxi driver with an Ambassador car would like to have one designed for his taxi. I guess it adds a bit of glamour for their cars because of its design and polish. When one touches, one could feel the smoothness of the wooden panel.

With more people placing orders due to the foot fall in his workshop, he started to take it as another part-time profession despite his commitment to his govt service. Things always take a U-turn when one can’t give time to any kind of work. One can’t be in two places at the same time no matter how professional or discipline one is. Personally, h e has always been committed to his govt service and his furniture design and making is being left to his craftsmen. I have seen him trying to give time to his workshop like he does to his govt job but things just keep on falling apart. Gradually, he started taking orders only to bear the expense of the workshop and the cost of inputs involved. I do feel that I was too young to remember whether I have had dinner with my Dad or not. He usually reaches home by 9 or 10 p.m in the evening when we (siblings) are asleep. Sometimes my youngest sister or my Mom would be the only ones who would serve him dinner.

Silence has been his only companion that has given him relaxation and peace of mind, which happens only on Sundays because it is a holiday for the workshop and its craftsmen. If silence wasn’t his companion, I am certain that I wouldn’t have seen him as he is today because stress has always been his oxygen when he starts his day.

“Let your hobby always remain a hobby, lest you lose your life. Life is always beautiful and one needs to learn cherishing it”.