New hobbies for today’s youth

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The passion for collecting things will never fade — it’s only the objects of interest which change along with the times. These days, coins and stamps are out — bangles, shells, tickets and shoes are in. Essentially, people collect those things they are passionate about. Like perfumes, for instance.
One of the seemingly absurd things that teens collect, are movie tickets. Nidhi Adlakha, who started collecting movie tickets in 2005, says, “I have always been fond of watching movies. One day, I decided to preserve one of my tickets, and after that, it just became a habit. I have approximately 180 to 200 tickets till now. All my tickets have the date and the names of the people I watched it with, on the back. My tickets are from theatres in different Indian cities, mainly from Bombay, Chennai and Pune. There are a few tickets that have stories behind them, like the one I bought in black a couple of years ago. Just after I bought it for almost three times the rate, I realised that the tickets were actually available at the counter and that I needn’t have bought it in black!”
Vinodhini Jayakumar, a student, speaks about her love for bangles. “I started collecting bangles at a very young age, when I was in class seven. As a kid, I had a lot of coloured bangles that I was really fond of. I have continued collecting bangles till today. I have a collection of glass, metal and wooden bangles, but I love my glass bangles the most. There was a time when I searched for almost three hours for a certain shade of blue bangle that I wanted in glass. My collection of bangles is really important to me. Among these, I’m very fond of a set of painted bangles that my friends made for me a year ago.”
She declares impressively, “At present, my bangle total stands at 1,800!”
Moving on from bangles, to shoes, we have Priyanka Narvekar. She tells us a bit about her obsession. “I am an extrovert and I love going out, partying, shopping and dressing up. As a child, I remember how I used to love watching mom get all dressed up. I would always admire her shoes. I longed to have such lovely shoes. As I grew up, slowly my mom started allowing me to buy fancy shoes and once when I was 13, when we were out shopping, we both ended up buying eight pairs of shoes — and that was it, that was when my love affair with shoes began!”
She continues, “Right now I have around 40 pairs of shoes. Usually when I like a pair, I tend to buy it in different colours as well. My friends think I’m crazy and maybe I am, but shoes are and will always be my first true love.”