[carwatcher]

WoW,

I also have very keen interest in cricket simulator games but I am not comfortable with online games, so play Total Cricket, The Cricket Simulator by Syedur Rahman and Cricket 07 by EA.

Will try the ones you have mentioned.

My family really laughs at me seeing me play such games apart from Cricket 07 as they simply don't find it sensible at all that how one can even think of doing such activity in the name of playing cricket.

Originally Posted by Prodigyy

Not really a hobby per se, but i have a very deep interest in simulation cricket games, and hence indulge in quite a few online cricket simulations like battrick, stumpedgame & cricketchampionship.

Pretty sure this is one unique interest / passion

[catchjyoti]

Originally Posted by blackasta

Though not unusual, my hobby is practiced by very few Indians unlike in western countries where there is a wide following - I am a hobby woodworker/carpenter.

..........

But nonetheless I have built a small workshop at the attic of my house and carry out my hobby from there.

I also have a blog where I update my builds - http://timberlogindia.blogspot.in/

Shall be happy to provide any details or tips to any tbhpian on whatever knowledge I have gained till now.

Wow BlackAsta - this is a really cool hobby. I first became aware of this hobby after I listened to the audiobook "Paddle your own canoe" by Nick Offerman. Nick, in addition to being an actor (Parks and Recreation), is also a woodworker and praised woodworking a lot.

Enthused by it, and completely unaware of whether I have any talent for it, I started searching for woodworking tools but couldn't find much in Indian websites. Whatever was available, I was not sure of quality. Another question was what kind of wood to start with.

Since you seem to have some knowledge and experience, can you suggest some starter kit in terms of tools and wood. And of course where to get them from.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by catchjyoti

can you suggest some starter kit in terms of tools and wood. And of course where to get them from.

I started off with a hacksaw, but better to get an all purpose saw (good for cross and rip cuts), a drill machine + bits (good for handy tasks around the house, not only limited to woodworking - the bits though are different for metal, masonry and wood), a claw hammer, philips and slot screwdrivers, and consumables (fevicol SH, screws, nails).
All of the mentioned items should be available in the local hardware stores, or at amazon.

Start with building smaller items (coasters, small racks, small shelves etc) and preferably use plywood. Plywood mainly comes in 8 x 4 / 5 x 4 feet sheets, so if you don't need the entire thing ask your local store for off-cuts and they shall happily sell them to you. Normally you would use 6mm (~1/4 inch), 12 mm (~1/2 inch) or 18 / 19 mm (~3/4 inch) ply for various tasks.

Watch some videos on youtube on beginner woodworking, and only if you are convinced, go and buy the items mentioned earlier.

[ObsessedByFIAT]

As a kid I used to collect different match box covers. The collection had grown to approximately 430 unique covers.

A few years later, as I grew up, I handed over my collection to one of my mother's student who would invariably ask me to show the collection. He was very fascinated and used to take care of the collection like a baby while seeing it. So thought of giving it to him because I felt he would take good care of it!

Apart from this, I like wood working and have done some small projects for home. Stuff like a tooth brush rack, medal holder for my son, a small house temple, a corner shelf for small toys and article display etc. Will post a few pictures once I get a chance.

Just like many of us here, I also like getting my hands dirty with my rides and drives. Small and easy things like cleaning air filters, changing oils etc.

[ariesonu]

Originally Posted by catchjyoti

Wow BlackAsta - this is a really cool hobby.

Originally Posted by blackasta

I started off with a hacksaw

My thread on woodworking
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...ng-thread.html

Blackasta already knows about it.

Regards-Sonu

[catchjyoti]

Thanks BlackAsta and Sonu

[subraiyr]

Amazing to see such varied hobbies here. The paper model building is very cool.

I started quite young on my hobbies. As most of you have said, it started with
1. Stamps
2. Coins
I ended up having over 4000 unique stamps across 160 odd countries and then gave it to my friend's brother when he started off his collection
Coins again went to a friend of mine who by now am sure has minted an amazing amount of money
Then i started collecting old books - anything i could lay my hands on, but graduated to first edition books. Managed a few 100s and successfully parted with it
Then i indulged in writing - poetry and managed to get some stuff published and was called in for an award to US. No money and so dint travel and dint provide an RSVP as well
Collected fountain pens - pre 60s era pens - got a bit expensive after sometime and gifted them one by one to deserving students
Went on the blog for about 5 years and then quit cold turkey after social media blasts
Now working on Adult Coloring - amazing stuff - close to doodling - having real fun with it now
I also end up polishing presentations for my friends
Thats about it for now. Trying to get back to blogging, but finding it tough

[Brumby]

Lots of interesting hobbies here. For me, I collect boarding passes, I have almost all of them since I started travelling by air in 1998. It started off like keeping the one from the first time travelled by air, then it followed with just keeping them in my bag, come back home and put it in an envelope, over the years its a big bunch now. Not at home right now so can't post the pictures.

[saurabh2711]

I used to collect Match Boxes, till I was in 10th Standard. Had nearly 9000 different boxes of it (yes 9000 - am not exaggerating). Collected from all over India, wherever we used to go during our vacations. Was virtually a rag picker, because of this hobby. And one day my mom decided otherwise & did the same to my match boxes, what match do best..

Originally Posted by hillram

My Replica BB Gun collection : Includes models of :
...Pietro Beretta

Hello hillram,
You have an amazing collection, four wheelers or the replica guns.
Please can you guide where can I purchase these replicas from?

Originally Posted by lambuhere1

Post Demonetization : New currency series collection

Hi,

I collect currency notes which carry Number "786" in their series. I don't know, how it took to me, but out of the blue started doing it.
I do not look for this on any specific location, but only "786" anywhere.

One of my samples of "786" notes.

Originally Posted by hillram

Unfortunately le anymore they are not available as they used to be due to the curb on chinese goods.
You may try still on Amazon.in or Flipkart. Few are available there, but of very poor quality

Many thanks.

Regards,
Saurabh

[hillram]

Originally Posted by saurabh2711

Hello hillram,
You have an amazing collection, four wheelers or the replica guns.
Please can you guide where can I purchase these replicas from?

Unfortunately le anymore they are not available as they used to be due to the curb on chinese goods.
You may try still on Amazon.in or Flipkart. Few are available there, but of very poor quality

[Turbopetrol]

Interesting thread here, How could I miss this one!

Like many here, I collected stamps and coins as a kid. Stamp collection ceased after my 10th grade, but I still have my old collection with me. I have restarted collecting coins now after a long gap of 15 years. Over the years I have managed to collect some old Indian coins, commemorative coins, Indian currency notes of various eras and some foreign coins. Now collecting coins is getting more and more difficult due to the cashless ways that our society is headed to.

One other long forgotten hobby of mine as a kid was to create weapon models! Yes, I mean model weapons like swords, axes, arrows, trishul, machete etc. I used to hammer very soft aluminum cable strands (the ones from overhead electrical cables) to flatten them, cut them to shape (a sword blade/machete etc) using an old rugged scissor and then mirror finish using an old file that I had. Most of the models would be of a finger length when finished.

Maybe my above affinity to weapons lead me to my current hobby - collecting knives and multitools! I have a collection of about 60 Victorinox/Wenger swiss knives and folding knives. I have examples of various countries' official military issue multitools and some discontinued models.

Other than these, I have a small collection of flashlights, all taking single or double AA cells.

Hoping to see many more interesting collections from fellow Bhpians.

[harikrishna.te]

Originally Posted by clevermax

Hmmm.. All the above hobbies have something in common - 'Collecting' !!! There's nothing unusual about it c'mon!!

Well I don't have any collecting hobbies as such, which I know I cannot continue for long even if I ever started it.

Since this thread is about 'unusual' hobbies, I will explain one of my hobbies when I was a scoolkid.

I make concentrated sugar solution, and drip one or two droplets on the floor or window side, and just lie down near that and watch. It was very interesting for me to see how an ant finds out the unexplored food treasure. When the ant finds it, it will start sucking the liquid untill its back-side storage tank is full, big and glowing with the liquid inside. Then it will go back to its nest carefully marking the path with the sugar liquid sample. After a while lots of ants will follow this path, and soon there will be hundreds of them sucking from the droplet. It never was a boring thing to watch. There are different types of ants and the most interesting were the tiny black ones and the bigger amber colored ones - not the ones which build nests in trees.

A wonderful thing to observe! I have always wondered how they make their way to the nearest sugar source. It must have been utterly rewarding, at least for your senses!

Originally Posted by saket77

Reviving....

Sharing my bit, I love to collect vinyl records. I have 5 turntables to give them a spin. I have about 300-400 LPs & EPs (Long playing records & Extended Play records). In general, I love collecting old stuff.

In addition to this, I also devote some leisure time to amateur Astronomy. Basically it's only some night sky observation with my Celestron 114 EQ Powerseeker Telescope.

Thanks,
Saket

The dream of every Amateur Astronomer! Is there a good guide that I can follow for telescope selection?

Originally Posted by blackasta

I started off with a hacksaw, but better to get an all purpose saw (good for cross and rip cuts), a drill machine + bits (good for handy tasks around the house, not only limited to woodworking - the bits though are different for metal, masonry and wood), a claw hammer, philips and slot screwdrivers, and consumables (fevicol SH, screws, nails).
All of the mentioned items should be available in the local hardware stores, or at amazon.

Start with building smaller items (coasters, small racks, small shelves etc) and preferably use plywood. Plywood mainly comes in 8 x 4 / 5 x 4 feet sheets, so if you don't need the entire thing ask your local store for off-cuts and they shall happily sell them to you. Normally you would use 6mm (~1/4 inch), 12 mm (~1/2 inch) or 18 / 19 mm (~3/4 inch) ply for various tasks.

Watch some videos on Youtube on beginner woodworking, and only if you are convinced, go and buy the items mentioned earlier.

Thanks for the tip on being convinced. Reading it here is easy but it takes a lot to continually pursue it.

[shashanka]

This thread has opened the flood gates. Unusual hobbies have garnered all the responses and that is as it should be. We all have hobbies when we are young and more often than not this pastime starts waning as we grow into adulthood. My obsession with Meccano modelling petered off once I entered engineering college, though I’ve been trying to revive it more recently, after retirement! By the time one enters parenthood, it is not unusual to find that hobbies have taken a back-seat!
Not so with “interests” – these (our interests) remain with us more or less unaffected with the passage of time. Stressful periods in life may divert us momentarily but we come back to nibble at it soon enough.

My ‘interests’ from a long while back have been cars, everything to do with them, specially the technical and engineering bits; touring by road and the paranormal. Touring by road (within India) is something we have been able to indulge in over the years (since 1997), though not being much of a record-keeper, I have not kept travelogues. Mainly because, at that time digital photography had not become the staple that it is today. And many of the negatives have deteriorated. The Naukuchiatal thread is the only one - and even that is more a collection of memories than a travelogue proper.
That leaves the paranormal. And here I must hasten to add that this interest has been on a very personal and private level. This is because it is generally assumed that the paranormal = ghosts and its associated phenomena. And is usually subjected to smug & complacent ridicule by those who should know better!
It is about ghosts of course, but the paranormal today is also such an amorphous and large field, overlapping disciplines as diverse as behavioural science, psychology, physics, healthcare, bio-molecular sciences, biology and others. As biologist Lyall Watson mentions in the introduction to his bestseller Supernature – “even the discipline of physics, whose laws once went unchallenged, has had to submit to the indignity of an Uncertainty Principle!” My deeper interest in the subject is because of Dr. Watson’s work and the books he has published on the subject. Personal experience(s) have played a part in sharpening the original interest and these will remain personal.

Further reading opened up a whole new world that I didn’t know existed. Astronomers Jacques Vallee and J. Allen Hynek provided a glimpse into the world of UFO phenomena & the allied mystery of alien/extraterrestrial intelligence & the whole gamut of conspiracy theories.
Harvard psychiatrist John E. Mack wrote the landmark “Alien Abduction”, after four years of research & investigation into these phenomena. The book went on to garner critical acclaim and was a world bestseller. As a result, he almost lost his tenure as a professor at Harvard Medical School. This created a tide of protest among his peers and in the media, and the Harvard authorities decided to re-examine the whole issue & subsequently quietly withdrew their decision to terminate his tenure.
There are many other illustrious and hard-nosed personalities who have entered the field gingerly & cautiously – only to tumble head-long into this fascinating maze.
As I found, the subject is too vast to encompass in a single thread and I’m hoping that other members with an interest in the subject would share their thoughts too.

[phamilyman]

I'll share a hobby that's a great bonding exercise for me (a weekend father!) and my son: origami. Its easy, inexpensive and really soothes my OCD brain. Here are today's outputs:

Flappy bird


Croaking frog. One of those things that is a bit awkward to photograph but looks better in person. Reason is the silly paper that has only one color on both sides, else the contrast would've been amazing.

Others into Origami, please share your preferred paper vendors. I use a 19x19cm paper from Campap (130 for a pack!!) but have not managed to source a bigger sheet. Happy to explore alternative references esp via online shopping!

[im_srini]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

I'll share a hobby that's a great bonding exercise for me (a weekend father!) and my son: origami.
Its easy, inexpensive and really soothes my OCD brain.
...
Flappy bird
...

Yeah, it is kinda therapeutic if you "suffer" from OCD

My flappy bird, I've been practising a "bonsai" version of origami for a while now.



Wanting to go from 'mini' to 'micro', but finding the right paper has been challenging (or my hands are too large ).