I think that ALL WORK AND NO HOBBIES makes doctors extremely boring. Having a hobby is a great way to destress, recharge your batteries, so you come back to work energetic and enthusiastic.
I have only two hobbies – Real Travel and Virtual Travel (Reading).
My dear friend Chitra Selvan always wanted to have a book club. We finally got around to organising one courtesy the COVID pandemic. We meet on the second Sunday of each month. A different person selects a book each month. It has been a wonderful journey – looking and listening to each other beyond just medicine and profession.
This is the list we have done so far.
Absent in the spring – Agatha Christie / Mary Westmacott
When Breath becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi
Latitudes of Longing – Shubhangi Swarup
Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
Pema Chodron – When Life falls Apart
The Subtle Art of Not giving a FUCK – Mark Manson
Next up are
Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Sita’s sister – Kavita Kane
Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus – John Gray
Travelling is my other love affair. If someone tells me there is a trip on the cards, I can be ready in 10 minutes to run off! I am blessed as I get to travel due to my profession as I attend a lot of conferences to share and showcase my research work both in India and abroad. I love travelling alone and spending time with myself.
The high points of my travels have been –
The DACHAU concentration camp near Munich, Germany. I have read of a lot of the struggle of the Jews during Hitler’s reign, and this was in my bucket list, I cannot express what I felt in words when I stood on the ground where thousands died. Its memorial depicting humans entangled in barbed wire is heart-rending.