Deepakshi Datta is a 24-year-old from Kolkata who runs an online store named @knotsoflovebydeepakshi, which she has inaugurated during the pandemic by rekindling some of her old hobbies. Drishti Arora is a 21-year-old from Delhi, who runs a small business called @kalaadrishti, which she has also started during the pandemic. Deepakshi said, “When I realised it may take some time for me to get a job, I decided to teach myself how to macrame.” The same encouraging tone was also there as Drishti said “I learnt a few basic stitches of crocheting from my aunt. Everything else I have learnt by watching YouTube tutorials.”
From digital illustration to crocheting, there are endless options of creative hobbies to explore and to start a business of your own from your hobby. Tavleen Kaur Rajpal, a 19-year-old, runs an Instagram page named @_artsymomo, has shared that her sister gave her the idea to make illustrations of the people close to her as well as of her pets, get them laminated and turn them into keychains on her best friend’s birthday. She said, “I put up a story on my handle asking if people would be interested in something like this and the support, I received was overwhelming.”
Naziya Nafis, 30, who is a mother-of-two, based in Patna, sells customised macrame art on her page @crazy_knot. She told us, she always envisioned since childhood, a life of creativity and artistic exploration. But, the expectations from family and society held her back in all these years. Now she has finally appealed to the wish of her heart.
But all these people are artists and not seasoned business people. They have pushed themselves to learn their hobby as a skill and make a whole business out of it.