Mangalore: Meet Deepti Raj Ullal - 'Aralu Mallige' Award Winner
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SB)
Mangalore, Oct 28: Deepti Raj Ullal is all of 13 years old, but her achievements belie her age. An ace dancer, good singer, painter, flautist all rolled into one she is nevertheless good in studies too scoring over 90 per cent.
As far as her recent laurels are concerned, Deepti received Aralu Mallige – 2009 award at Jnana mandira Academy, Kannada Bhavana, Bangalore for her achievements in the field of Bharatanatyam. So far she has won over 60 prizes in Bharatanatyam competitions and has to her credit over 250 solo Bharatanatyam performances at programmes, Ragataranga Suma Sourabha and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavana to name a few.
Deepti, disciple of Karnataka Kalatilaka Ullal Mohan Kumar and Vidushi Rajashree Shenoy of Natyaniketana, Kolya has passed with distinction the junior grade Bharatanatyam examination and is now all set to appear for senior grades. Jyothi Rajesh, Deepti’s mother says that it was keen interest in dance her daughter evinced when she was a four-year-old that prompted Jyothi to give her daughter dance lessons. “I first enrolled her in Mangalore Excellent Dance Academy to learn western and eastern dance forms under Sandesh Janvi. However, well-wishers who saw that Deepti was exceptional in expressions asked me to enroll her for Bharatanatyam lessons too,” she adds.
Speaking to Daijiworld, Deepti said that she loves portraying Krishna in her Bharatanatyam performances for it involves lot of ‘Hasya rasa’ as playing the lord meant lot of naughty expressions. My memorable moment so far was me winning a first prize in my first-ever state level dance event I participated which was conducted by Airtel in 2006. The applause I got for my performance of Pushpanjali really encouraged me a lot and work hard ever since. Further, I have also state level awards for western dancing too and have a keen interest in modeling field, she adds.
Dancing apart she is also a good singer, who has been undergoing training under teacher Narayani Shankar Bollava of Sharada Sangeetha Vidyalaya, Shringeri Mutt, Kolya since last six years. She is all set to appear for her junior grade examination. She is excellent in Bhagvadgita recitation having won numerous prizes. She also loves drawing and is good at story writing having won an international award for story writing competition organized by ING Vysya when she was in standard III the topic being Me and My Papa in Moon and had won a prize to travel to Australia. She is also an active guide and also has bagged first prize in dress designing competition in 2006.
A student of standard VIII at St Theresa’s School, Mangalore Deepti says apart from her mother who is also her pillar of strength and the force that keeps her grounded despite achievements, the support of father, Rajesh Ullal, grandmother, dance teachers, drawing teacher, school and friends, who without any iota of jealously have appreciated her whole-heartedly and also have helped her cope with her lessons. I feel time management and hard work are the keys for whatever little I have achieved and would like to pursue these avenues as hobbies with my main aim being IAS, she adds with glint in her eyes.