Protect your interests

Hobbies are meant to be fun. Why suck the fun out of them by turning them into a business? A plea in three parts

- Sneha Krishnan

Beyonce's fanbase is called the Beyhive. But few fans know beekeeping is actually her hobby too. Mike Tyson rescues and races pigeons. Ryan Gosling knits. Paris Hilton restores antique radios. Taylor Swift is an obsessive... snow-globe maker. The best part, none of these folks are commercialising their interests. We might be able to learn something from celebrities after all.

A hobby, any hobby, is a delicate undertaking. There's always a more important task to complete instead, a hobby is the first sacrifice when life gets busy. Do it well enough and people start asking, “Do you take orders?" "You should turn this into a business!" Meet some hobbyists who are determined to not listen to them.

Skin deep

Siddharth Sankaranarayanan, 22, who works in advertising in Bengaluru, got interested in leatherworking in the pandemic. He turns leftover hides from the meat industry into wallets, pouches, even laptop sleeves.

The task transforms him as much as it transforms the hide. "When I sit down to work with my tools and the leather, I am in my zone. Everything is in control," says Sankaranarayanan. "The fun is in the journey. There is scope for creative exploration. The best part is, the designs are completely mine." There's no client hovering, with precious unwanted inputs.