Other activities

Apart from my studies in school, games and sports, I did quite a few things. Most of them, I did not pursue properly. I learnt Yajur Veda from a great Sanskrit scholar for eight years approximately. Right now, these days I am recollecting whatever I have learnt. I have forgotten a lot of what I have learnt. I used to participate actively in Rudra Ekadesis, Shiva Ratris and Sankara Jayanthis even during my final stage of schooling.

I learnt playing Veena from my mom and grandfather. My grandfather and so many people in my mom's side are stalvarts in Veena and Carnatic music. I did not pursue it properly and it is very difficult for me to learn from now on. I can play Veena only to a very little extent, say I can play some easy Geethams. These Geethams I can play because I used to lend my ears to my sister when she was learning vocal music at home. I also learnt to play a simpler instrument, Keyboard. I used to learn some new songs from my grandma(my dad's mom).

To say more on my music interest, I listen to a lot of old songs, Ilayaraja and Carnatic songs. I can identify a few raagas. My grandma used to sing songs and conduct a quiz for me and my sister to identify raagas. We would also analyze raagas in cine songs. Music is a huge part of my life, I feel. But I very rarely listen to latest releases. I listen only if I get good reviews. When it comes to songs, lyrics come second to me. I never listen to the lyrics.

Since I was telling about quiz, quizzing was another passion for me. I used to participate in a lot of quiz competitions and I have won some prizes also. But I lacked that enthusiasm there to know things which are not coming my way. This I felt when I went for bigger Quiz competitions where I found people answering questions which were not at all guessable. Guess work is a key to Quizzing. I have felt this. If some quizzer is reading this, do comment on this.

Then, Karate. I learnt Karate for five years. Self-defence and physical fitness are also key things in this world. I secured Green Belt and also appeared for Brown IV. Karate classes were also fun. The exercises were really tough and tiresome. We always used to skip when the master was not seeing us. Cuttas and sparing were always of great interest. Karate master's singularities are still in my mind. His counting in Japanese, his tamil proverbs to scold students are still in my memories. I wrote and removed since it will be unparliamentary to write them. If you are interested ask me in person. :)

I am very poor in drawing. Another interest of mine was Photography. My dad bought me a Snapper camera when I was in my primary school. I have taken some good pictures then, for the child level. That camera was not an automatic rewind camera. Later I was given a Minolta Riva automatic rewinding camera. I have covered my uncle's marriage fully and I still have the album with 108/108 good snaps. The current camera which I have is a digital camera Sony 5.1 Mega Pixels camera. I have lost interest in photography suddenly, the reason being I will never be in pictures when I am taking snaps.

And in the next blog I will continue with my final schooling days.