My hobby, my choice #NoRegrets

Life always has challenges. And I laugh sometimes that when there is no challenge in life, then life itself becomes a challenge. Though my challenge is not that big, it is just that I am well-educated, married, non-working and have a passion for reading good literature and watching thought-provoking art or offbeat movies. Reading good thought-provoking books or watching movies is not an easy and comfortable affair, you need to invest a lot of your time and attention. And it could make you restless as well, sometimes for a day or two. But, this leisure activity has always been food for my soul and mind. This is what makes me feel alive and also leaves me with regrets. Because reading a good book or novel is like an addiction until you complete reading it you can not sit peacefully. So many times I could not focus on important matters when I was in the middle of reading an interesting book. And sometimes, I have been made feel what is the use of reading the fiction or someone's imagination, it is just a total waste of time and it will not give you money at the end of the day. I often tried to justify for my own sake that reading good books is not just a waste of valuable time and often argued with others as well in the anticipation of winning my own arguments. However, recently I watched Vishal Bhardwaj's trilogy on  Shakespeare's three world-famous classic plays adaptation in Hindi movies: Othello(Omkara), Macbeth(Maqbool), Hamlet(Haider). And I simply was in awe with the director and his interpretation of classic plays of Shakespeare into a modern context. It made me reflect that literature can never be old and obsolete. Literature has always been a shadow of the past and a window of the future, how could it be a mere waste of time...
We live in a society which always keeps judging us. I am also the part of this society and do the same with others, after all, I am also human and could fall to my temptations despite being so knowledgeable. So, my point is that we have brackets for everything. When you are working and could afford to read a book, not only monetarily but also the time investment, you become a role model and are aspired as a person. But if you are jobless or non-working and pursue a good hobby, it is seen as a waste of time instead of giving leisure to you, it fills you with guilt and regret and makes you realize that it might be the only reason for you being a failure(i.e. you don't earn money, do not contribute to economy, so your existence, your passion does not matter). When I was a child, I was told to focus on school academic books, it will give me admission into a better future, don't waste time on books or movies. When I started my career, I hardly had any energy or time to read a book. Now, I am non-working, and I want to spend my time creatively, I am told to do pursue something which adds value to my education and future and worth doing. Pursue a passion with a money-earning work. But I am convinced now that my hobby is my choice, it makes me a person of depth and fills my life with color and I don't need anybody's approval for this. If your gossip could be office politics or family politics, why I could not see the world from the eyes of Shakespeare or Rabindranath Tagore. Literature has not originated simply from the seed of someone's imagination, it has been the mirror of our contemporary society and thrives only because of some good readers like me who challenge the society to pursue this ambition. Though this is the irony of our society that a good reader and a good listener or good audience is not highly celebrated yet. Maybe one day we would be able to see a category for the 'Best Audience Award' in a most sought after gala functions with glamorous stage, at that time my passion will not be seen as only time pass rather an intellectual trait. Till then in the hopes of the positive paradigm shift in peoples thinking, I keep quenching my thirst for good books and movies with  #NoRegrets