Vinod Thakur, runner in Nach Baliye dance competition reached Udaipur on Tuesday.

Vinod Thakur, a Divyang and a great dancer – runner in Nach baliye and India’s got Talent reached Udaipur on Tuesday. He received a warm welcome from Udaipur public. Vinod hails from Mumbai.

He started his journey on his special bike from Mumbai and wishes to travel to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was encouraged by Udaipurites for his motive and enthusiasm. He left Mumbai on 12^th September on this “expedition” and will reach Delhi by 22 September.

Life has not been easy for Vinod. He was an average student at school and after a pre-university qualification; he did a short technical course in repairing mobile phones. “I’d been using my arms for everything, including walking, they had developed very well and I’d wanted to be a bodybuilder,” says Vinod. But it was a friend who suggested he take up dancing seriously. At first Vinod was slightly hesitant. “I love dancing and music but initially I was not sure I would be able to dance like a professional. But I began to practise in earnest,”

In addition to practising his dance moves at home, Vinod enrolled in a local gym to build his arms and upper body as, “I knew I would need to use my arms for all my dance moves”.

Thanks to the encouragement of his friends, he managed around three to four hours of practice every day. He also developed his skills by watching other hip-hop dancers online. In five months he mastered several tricky dance moves and even choreographed his own five-minute routine. It was then that a friend suggested he audition for the second series of India’s Got Talent in 2010.  From the word go, he was a standout contestant and sailed through to reach the semi-final.

Inputs from bhaskarnews and gulfnews