My Hobbies
Dancing and Quizzing are my 2 big time hobbies. Its kind of semi-professional hobby infact. Here is a list of a few of my pass time hobbies, my alternative passions. This is not an exhaustive list infact.
Coin Collection
I have a decent collection of Coins which I have accumulated and preserved from my high school time. I have coins of about 50 different countries andaround 150 coins. My collection is not just limited to Foreign coins. I alsohave some old Indian coins.
Classical Singing
I am not a gifted singer, but I am a trained singer. I am trained in Carnatic Classical music for almost 9 years. I have passed my senior grade in Carnatic Vocal with an 80% marks. But unfortunately (or fortunately ;-) ) I didn't practice or even attempt to sing anywhere, because of which I have lost touch of singing. So, today I sing for myself, thats it.
Playing a Violin
I learnt Violin for 2 years under 2 famous Violinists from Ujire and Puttur. The greatest disadvantage of being in Rural area is the availability of resources to learn. My violin teachers discontinued, leaving me no choice but to discontinue. But my Carnatic knowledge is good enough for me to try out new music, new movie songs etc.
Playing a Keyboard
I learnt playing the keyboard all by myself. I was the official harmonium player for my high school music team. This team has won a few awards infact. Even today, I successfully try out new movie songs in my keyboard whenever I go to my hometown.
Trekking
Trekking is one hobby that I developed after I came to Bangalore, that too after I quit the college hostel and joined Hoysala Trust Boys hostel. A group of hostelites have gone trekking (on bike mostly) to various places like Skandagiri, Nandi hills, Bandipur, Himavad Gopalaswamy Hills, Nanjangudu, Mysore KRS backwaters etc
Yakshagana
I learnt Yakshagana from a few renouned artists from Dharmasthala who taught us the basic techniques of Yakshagana (a folk dance form of Karnataka). As a high school student, I was a part of the team which had performed ENGLISH yakshagana also. In my PU college, I was the part of College's official team , Yakshakoota which won the University level Yakshagana competition. We even performed in Akhila Karnataka Yakshagana Sammelana which took place in Ravindra Kalakshetra, Bangalore in 2004.
I quit the team in my 2nd year because I didn't like the dirty politics of the in-charge lecturer. Yakshagana still happens to be the only dance form in which I am officially trained.
