Get skilled this weekend

I remember the day my mother came home from work with a special treat for my brother and me — an audio cassette of the latest Aamir Khan-Madhuri Dixit movie Dil. We listened to the songs more than a 100 times, tirelessly flipping the cassette over and over, Side A to Side B to Side A to Side B. We vowed to treasure that tape forever.

We didn’t factor in technology. Over the next two decades, we watched the rise of several miraculous inventions, and their overnight plunge into obsolescence. Cassettes, VCRs, floppy disks, film cameras; all consumed by the ruthless cycle of invention and disruption.

It is not just technology that has seen this disruption. Society and all that we hold familiar and unshakeable is also going through this reinvention, sweeping into oblivion entire pages of a painstakingly acquired lexicon.

One such casualty is the word “hobby”. It has faded almost completely from usage, like ornate handwriting from the yellowed pages of an ancient diary. In fact, the word seems to have acquired a subtly negative tone, suggesting a deliberate idleness that is unforgivable in this day and age.

When I was growing up, summer vacations were dedicated to cultivating hobbies. My grandmother did her best to nudge me towards the fine, lady-like arts of needlepoint and crochet. Climbing trees and bullying my younger brother did not qualify as hobbies in her opinion. Neither did reading, which was considered necessary for survival, as essential as the daily glass of hot milk.

Structured leisure

So, what happened to hobbies? The idea of leisure purely for pleasure is an indulgence few can afford these days. As responsibilities at work increase and smarter devices bring the office into our homes, work-life balance has become a utopian dream.

This is when, the concept of structured leisure emerged. Open any newspaper or booking site on a Friday and you will see innumerable listings for weekend classes. Almost all of these are run in “capsule” format, which means that you do not have to commit several years of your life to learning something. If you choose to, you can spend one weekend perfecting your storytelling skills, the next weekend learning how to make a bottle lamp, and the one after discovering the secret to a perfect chocolate soufflé.

And if you are one of those lucky people who possess a particular skill, you can easily run a class for other people. Look at these listings closely, and you will realise that most of these are run, not by institutes, but by individuals. The range is astounding, covering art and craft — (terracotta jewellery making, block printing, glass painting, quilling, etc) cooking (which is also an art), technical courses (app development, programming languages, etc). The assortment is so vast that any attempt at a comprehensive list is likely to look like a resurrection of the yellow pages (yet another casualty of the last decade!).

So what is driving this? People are looking to get more value out of their limited leisure time, and for many, it means dedicating a portion of their weekends to learning. There is an almost predictable volatility to jobs these days, especially in the IT sector, which employs more than ten million people in the country. After the last couple of recessions caught people unawares and unprepared, many are now investing time and money to hone an existing skill, add a new one or explore a completely new path. This is not to say that traditional, longer programmes have fallen out of favour; it just means that there are many more standalone or short-term options available now. It all depends on your objective. 

Value addition

Leena Dua, a delivery project manager with a tech major, recently signed up for a certificate programme in Data Science. “I really love my job, but was beginning to feel the need for more intellectual stimulation. I don’t mind spending time learning something new, and I am sure it will add value to my profile and also open up more opportunities.”

Sarita, a Bengaluru-based analyst, works full-time for an IT firm. On weekends, she attends French classes at the Alliance Française and also writes poetry. “I don’t want to be constrained by my job title and I enjoy exploring different possibilities. It’s a great stress-buster and so much more fulfilling than watching TV at home or going out to a restaurant,” she says. The investment has paid off; she is one of several young people who have been selected to teach English at a school in France.

Can all weekend pursuits lead to alternative career paths? Maybe, maybe not. But the potential is certainly there, to be recognised and nurtured.

Another format of productive initiatives that is catching on is that of meetups, something that I encountered for the first time in Dubai. A group of about 30 people, many of whom didn’t know each other, got together one balmy Sunday to play beach volleyball at a beach resort. The meetup was coordinated on WhatsApp and the court fees shared equally by the group. The group continued to meet regularly to play at different courts, and became so proficient that they went on to win several matches against other teams.

Most meetups do not have more than a handful of people who know each other. What brings them together is a common interest; it could be to develop apps, learn theatre or anything else. There is usually no fee, unless it involves the use of paid facilities, the cost of which is then shared by the group. There is no designated teacher, but there is usually at least one person who acts as a moderator or facilitator to hold the group together.

There are meetup groups that are active in several cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, with websites to help streamline the process. Niharika S, who is part of a meetup group on writing poetry, says, “I had been wanting to get more practice, but was unable to commit to classes, so this suited me perfectly. The first time I went, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see so many people. The facilitator guided the group through some practice exercises, and by the end of the session, I felt it was two hours well spent. The group meets on weekends, so I attend whenever I can.”

Going it alone

There are others who are driven enough to go the distance alone. Vikram A who works for the government, enjoys job security, but that has not stopped him from dreaming of entrepreneurship. He invests a significant portion of his leisure time working on his business model and doing research. Weekends find him in intense brainstorming sessions with business professionals in meetings that run for hours without a break.

As a people we are now less still, making it difficult to commit years to the pursuit of one interest. But we are also more eager to explore the world and its ever-changing possibilities. There is an increased awareness of the finite nature of time, infusing our lives with a sense of urgency, but also of purpose.

According to Dan Pink’s path-breaking book Drive, human beings are inherently purpose maximisers, not robotic wealth maximisers. This can also be linked to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. With promising economic growth, people are meeting their basic needs when they are quite young, so the quest for purpose, or self-actualisation is beginning much earlier, leading them to contemplate hitherto unexplored paths. At the very least, this quest results in a more holistic, less stressful approach to life.

Basically, or “net-net”, to use corporate-speak, hobbies are out, productive leisure is in. So what are you doing this weekend?