Hobbled hobbies.

As a teenager I loved cycling . I immensely enjoyed the contact with the wind that blew my hair and pushed me backwards . One day whilst testing my cycling skills in the highways I saw several middle aged men pedaling pedantically in a steady file . They were driving purposefully towards their work place.The thrill that cycling gave me was for them a means to take them to their work place . The thrill had gone out of their lives .

I enjoy embroidering hankies,tablecloths, TV covers etc.I visited Kashmir in my honeymoon[just before the terrorists made the place out of bounds] . There I was taken by a persistent salesman to dingy place in a shikara ,paddling in narrow waterways ,to show us and sell us shawls and carpets.There I saw several men sitting hunched over shawls and carpets that they were embroidering mechanically.They didn't even lift their eyes to see us !They were embroidering beautiful designs,but to them it was all in a day's work .

I liked preparing sweets and savouries , whenever I become tired of mugging all those dry sections of bare acts and going through endless cyclostyled case laws whilst studying law.I enjoyed my short sojourns into the kitchen ,the undisputed empire of my mother who indulgently gave way .After marriage and running my own household , I often remembered my mother at her tireless cooking every day because I was similarly placed preparing the same fare --rice,sambhar,rasam ,kai ....,day after day.Now when festivals make their appearance as they do intermittently, the sweets and snacks I once enjoyed preparing ,have become an additional burden.