In case you are bored of your tight schedule, there are workshops to help you unwind and burn the stress. Do not fret over time constraints, the tutorials are customised keeping in mind your preferences and some are available on Skype too. Divya Kaushik reports
Anil Gupta, a 45-year old banker has an enviable profile and he enjoyed a family life most professionals would crave for. However, there was a turn to his perfect life, when his only daughter moved to the US and husband and wife didn’t have much to do over the weekends. Discussing ways to utilise the spare time better got him to know of language courses by Zabaan. They are known for providing language classes and recent addition to the list were their courses based on India. The best part about the courses is that there are no set batches, they can be customised as per your preferences. “It offered a fresh change and is better than reading books and trying to grasp things. You have someone to guide you. You can also take the course online. After completing your college, you often look forward to get back to your studies in some way but it never happens. This gave me an opportunity,” he shared.
When someone said there is no age to learn, you often would have thought to yourself, if that someone would also have specified how to take out the time for that learning, things would have been easier. But seems like the trouble is sorted now, there are classes and workshops designed for people of all age groups. The best part is they are customised keeping in mind your time preferences and for some courses you need not bother to travel. All you need is to log on to Skype and take the tutorial any time you want.
The concept of workshops was only popular among children till a few years. Then came corporate workshops, designed to give employees a break from the mundane. And the latest trend of workshops for all age groups in the city is catering to the interest and hobbies of people. They do not bind ‘mostly working adults’ in any time frame or schedule. They have the liberty to get the class designed as per their own comfort. Take for example workshops by International Institute of Culinary Arts (IICA) in Hauz Khas Village. They have culinary courses designed after keeping in mind the time you can readily devote to the course, and also why you want to take it up. “We also designed a course for the youngsters who were going to settle abroad and wanted to learn cooking so that they can cook on their own whenever they would feel homesick. Those were the people who never cooked their entire lives, but since they were moving as bachelors overseas they wanted to be self dependent,” informed Virendra Dutta from the institute and said they have professionals as old as 50 years in their courses. “Some just want to break the monotony and come to do something interesting over the weekends and some plan to devote some time every evening after work to destress. And interestingly there are some who after being in a profession for a few years do not want to continue with it. Considering being a chef is suddenly so cool and happening, they want to nurture their hobby and make most of their passion,” he said adding that gender is no bar too. “There are equal number of men and women,” he commented.
Number of things that you can do after mastering an art also makes adults interested in a course. Mumbai-based Payal Bhattacharya is known for her calligraphy works and she translates her art onto murals, installations, curtains and even tattoos. The number of students she has been getting is only increasing since last three years. “Earlier parents used to get their kids for calligraphy classes thinking it will improve their handwriting. It is a myth, calligraphy is not cursive writing, it is rather an angular style of writing. And there are so many things you can do with it once you know the art. Many people find writing love letters using calligraphy fascinating and are using it to impress their partners. It is something for the keeps,” shared Payal and added that she gets corporates, graphic artists and designers as her students. She is willing to take up classes in Delhi too provided she gets a batch of over ten people. Nothing is available online. “Calligraphy needs a personal tutorial and its difficult to learn it by just observing,” she said. The reason why workshops for adults are getting popular rapidly is also that the cost involved is not too much. “In present age we work under stressful conditions and we rarely get time to do something creative. You are not given marks for creating something and you get to spend time with your own self,” stated Shruti Iyer, a 30-year-old event manager who is taking a pottery classes presently. She keeps changing the classes as per her interest.