Is your hobby really what you like ?

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To get smokey flavor in your tikka, coal’s smoke particulates need to combine with the fat in the marination. This and many other learnings I applied to my new hobby of cooking at time of great lock down.

 Cooking videos were my daily dose of dopamine, making sambhar paste was my default response to a bad stakeholder meeting, cooking meat on weekend was my revival after a never-ending stressful week, a big chef knife was birthday present to myself after a forgetful encounter with “frenemy” at work.

Now at a cyclical peaceful time of the year, I prepared my signature chicken karahi for few guests, it tasted same but cutting onions wasn’t akin to revenge, spices didn’t smell like victory the slow burn cooking didn’t transport me to my happy place.

 It didn’t give me a high nor the feeling that I should do it more often, or a desire that I should leave my work and purse this full time.

Are our hobbies and creative pursuits just escape mechanism?  And maybe reason why we don’t just walk away from toxic relationships or stressful environment is that we also stand to lose pursuits that gave us most pleasure but in disguise were just other side of the coin.

A renaissance or the Sufi moment wouldn’t have been possible without dark Middle Ages. Game changing 199-93 budget of India wouldn’t have been possible without prior economic crisis that led us to mortgage 20 ton of federal gold. Steve Waugh or a Virat kohli wouldn’t perform at peak level without picking a fight on the ground.

Are we just defined by stress both in its absence and in its presence, and are we condemned to seek this negative energy just to covert it into something more positive and be forever trapped in pain and pleasure cycle? And what happens if we just walk away…..what fills the vacuum  

Imagine there is no stress and toxicity so much in our pleasure-seeking part of life would be so different. Who knows you might just prefer

  • ·         rainfall of Mumbai as holiday over mountains of Himachal,
  • ·         a sedate stability of sedan over mighty presence of SUV
  • ·         Simple Dal Bhat over sinful ice-cream with Choco chips
  • ·         10 inches smaller television

Million-dollar question is how to have this purity and excellence of pursuit which is not driven by stress, anxiety and adversity. If you have an answer different than some amount of stress is good please comment/message and let me know


Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 29, 2021 at 2:38 AM

    Very well written Bhai. I (and most of your readers) can relate to most of it. I think hobbies in our busy lives tend to become a filler, or a reaction rather than a real pursuit of an interest... sometimes at least. Me spending a lot of time with my 3yr old and his friends off late (one of the great things to happen due to covid) gives me very simple answers of some of these complications we have created for ourselves as adults. Living in the moment, chasing your interest, not looking at the watch when you're having so much fun on the new slide / playground are simple things that have stopped making us happy. Dealing with work related stress doesn't have to so hard (personal stuff on the other hand can be a very different story).

    ReplyDelete
  2. AseemDecember 29, 2021 at 6:21 AM

    Well Well Well … I for one have learnt from the follies of my sinful past. Gave away the Mighty SUV to get to the sedate sedan. Replaced Phone Calls and Meetings with newer Books. Gave up on deeper and intellectually stimulating books for standard cliched “chic-lit” and boy am I living it up or what 🥳🥳

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