Having fun can mean a lot of different things for different people. But my philosophy is if we can have fun in a way that costs us least that would be the best. No wonder some of the best fun times we have had is when we are with family and friends chatting and sharing a laughter.

I remember what one of my friend told me a long time ago. He was at that time married new and was struggling as his business not going well. On one of our meetings he said “It is tough but we find fun things to do as Husband and wife”. I asked him what that was and he replied

“We take a platform ticket and go to a railway station and we sit there and take and watch people get out and into trains”

Just so you know this was in India and we needed platform tickets to get to the platform to see off your loved ones. This stuck with me years later and during my work in the San Francisco City and had the one hour commute one way, I used that time to observe people and started writing a series of stories called ‘Transit Reader” where I would write a story about someone before they boarded the train or after they left the train. It was fun for me.

Movies are a fun event for me. I enjoy my drink, and I don’t need a company for that. I know it is not healthy, but I love it, I don’t judge myself. I (used to but) no more enjoy extravagant parties and lavish dine outs. They seem to me very hollow and baseless delivering nothing of value. It might be just me, I am sure many people have fun in extravagant parties.

I love books, not just reading, but even just visiting the library and browsing and even picking books that I never get time to read. I love poetry, I have fun writing. And every now and then I discover a new thing to have fun. The things I have most fun cost the least for me. I have fun going to work because I have a lot of fun with the people I work with.

I think we all need to explore things for fun. I am not much into trekking, but I have seen many people ritually do that and it is also a very cost effective fun thing to do. If we look around us, we can find that fun is not very expensive, unless your fun thing to do is shopping and buying expensive material stuff and eating out in fancy restaurants. Again, may be thats your thing, just that it’s not for me.