The other day, wading through a Hindi chapter about one Rajappa and a Nagarajan and their respective stamp albums in my daughter’s Hindi textbook, I was struck by something. Kids these days have little clue about activities such as philately, calligraphy, coin collecting, marble paper painting, nib drawing or the joys of rock collecting, recording cassettes, doing cross-stitch and more. In earlier, simpler, less demanding times, children engaged in a range of pastimes and hobbies that have all but disappeared in recent times.
Time was that children would proudly display their stamp albums to guests and relatives. Today’s kids know nothing of the joys of collecting rare stamps, trading them, carefully affixing them inside albums and about the delights of collecting and collections.
I don’t know about you, but at least some coin collections used to be an excuse to ask friends and visitors for money! It was fun too: when kids showed people that their possession of a ‘kani kaudi’ among other types of currency.
Some of us will remember collecting pretty coloured stones, those lovely river bed rocks smoothed by the power of flowing water and then painting them to make ‘show pieces’ and paperweights! All those amateur geologists – not many around these days!
I was hopeless at this but was full of admiration at classmates and cousins who could do this. Nib drawing was a hugely popular hobby back in the day!
Yes, it was messy and some of us seemed to do it so much better than others. However, many will remember the enjoyment of the chaotic, joyful, colourful activity!
I suppose it dates me terribly that I remember countless joyful hours recording favourite songs interspersed with my own comments on audio cassettes. I seem to also remember recording ‘interviews’ with people – neighbours or relatives; sometimes with people who were entirely the figment of my own imagination.
We tend to type, not write these days; with the result that developing beautiful handwriting has lost its value. Calligraphy is all but a lost art in recent times.
This one used to be the exclusive preserve of girls: doing cross stitch, chain stitch, knot stitch, running stitch, lazy daisy, herringbone embroidery were taught in school. I remember my mother paying me to do cross stitch for table mats, dresses etc because she thought I should have ‘ladylike’ abilities. Perhaps it still is taught in some schools? I don’t know.
Kids today would much rather create virtual objects – and remain forever unaware of the joys collecting real things, of a good barter, of buying supplies, of creating something by hand and actually touching and holding it… cherishing it!
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