If one works very hard and continuously, one naturally feels tired. Our minds begin to wander, and we feel unable to fix our attention on work. Psychologists say that fatigue is caused by some of the brain matter being wasted while at hard work, and that, in order to allow the matter to be replaced, rest is necessary. It is only after the necessary rest that we feel fresh as before. Thus leisure is quite essential for our system after hard work. This does not mean that we should absolutely cease to do any work because work is as necessary as rest. Rest can also be had by a change in occupation.
For example we have been working hard at mathematics for 4 hours and long for rest. But we need not sit idle. We can sing a few of our favorite songs and enjoy the tunes. That is also rest
Again or if we have a hobby like stamp-collecting, we may after a hard day’s work, collect stamps, affix them neatly in sheets with decorated borders. This is not only a pleasing occupation but also useful.
We may also attend to our garden during our leisure hours. We may trim a plant or prune a creeper or dig the ground. We may watch the glory of the buds blossoming into a flower. Watering the flower plants is not only a pleasant diversion but also a very useful form of physical exercise. We can also watch the birds around.
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Some may try their hand at drawing or painting. Painting flowers or creepers or birds in their natural setting is something of an achievement and may give us very great pleasure indeed. Those who have leisure may collect beautiful pictures and make them into neat albums.
If we are in the country side, we may take a walk into the open and mingle freely with farmers and other rural folk. We may study their outlook and ideas, their needs and aspirations. We may probably tell them a thing or two from our knowledge of modem times and of the modem world which they might not have known. We may try to teach them the elements of hygiene and first-aid; or if they have their own methods, we can also collect the tales most popular among them, and thus specialise in folk-lore. It is a fascinating study, which will reflect the various phases of the life of those spending most of their time in their native surroundings.
The most useful way of spending one’s leisure is to do some kind of social service especially to the backward sections of society. We may informally hold classes for illiterate adults, narrate interesting stories, teach them to read and write, tell them how to safeguard themselves against infectious diseases, teach them the benefit of thrift by encouraging them to deposit their meager savings in a saving bank or invest them in national savings certificates, and do a hundred other similar things besides.
We may teach them the rudiments of civics, educate them as to their rights as voters and as to their duties in safeguarding it we may exhort them to give their whole-hearted cooperation in the community project and other development schemes.