Lord Brougham said, ``blessed is the man who has hobbies.’’ the pursuit of hobbies is not, as some think, a waste of time. Rather it prevents us from wasting our time in other frivolous pursuits. Hobbies fill our vacant hours with amusement and interest.

So I am justified in having my hobbies. And I have a number of them. I take a child pleasure in collecting old stamps of different nations. I keep an album wherein I paste these curios of mine. Every now and then I open my album and have a look at the beautifully arranged postal stamps. Oh, how they stand staring at me!

I also take pleasure in making collection of wild flowers and ferns, and in pressing and mounting their specimens. By nature, I love, flowers-all their varieties. Their lovely hues and glorious tins charm me beyond measure.

Being a student of geology, I also find much amusement in collecting fossils. The earth and its crust reveal to me mysteries unknown and wonders undreamt of. I know how aged a particular piece of soil is and what its characteristics are.

But the collecting of pictures, old manuscripts, curios and antiquities- the hobbies of the rich – is not meant for me.

Then I take pleasure in photography too. In a delightful morning I take my camera with me and go to the surrounding hills and take snapshots of the scenes of nature. It gives me great pleasure in washing the negative, and patiently working on it with a delicate brush, and in at last contemplating the final fruit of my labor in the form of a finished photograph. There is much pleasure in keeping a record of all the beautiful scenes of nature and majestic buildings I may happen to see.

Gardening is another favorite hobby of mine. The tending of delicate plants, the nourishing of flowers, the trimming of flowers-beds, the uprooting of poisonous weeds and thorns, the covering of fruit and vegetables to shield them from biting cold, and the watering of flower-pots- what a pleasure and joy all this gives!

These are my hobbies. We cannot do without hobbies if we want to make our life worth living. A mind vacant is a mind distressed. But hobbies fill our leisure hours with pleasure. They give us both occupation and joy in our old age when we have retired from active life.