A 19-year-old boy from north Kashmir’s Bandipora district has been spending his pocket money for the last three years to promote his singing talent on his own.
Raina Arsh, who hails from Gundpora-Rampora village of Bandipora, has been singing from the time when he could barely talk and for the last three years, he has been spending his pocket money to promote the singing talent on his own.
Talking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Arsh said that he started singing at the age of 14 when he participated in a talent show “Bandipora Got Talent”.
He said that the show was organized by District Police Bandipora and the audition round was a bit tricky but he made it. “As I began, SSP Bandipora, who was the chief guest on the occasion, interrupted me and asked me to sing another song. I got a bit nervous and a little worried as I thought I messed up. As the talent show concluded, I couldn’t believe that I was the winner of this show,” Arsh said.
One year later, Arsh participated in another show “Choona Hai Aasmaan”, which was also organized by District Police Bandipora and this time again he made it to the finals.
He said that it was 2017 when he thought of recording his first song but he could not afford the expenses of a music studio. “I didn’t want to make it with my father’s money as it was my dream and I had to make it on my own. I started saving my pocket money and it was in 2018 when I recorded my first song ‘Hooray’ and posted it on my YouTube channel. The video has garnered 5K views since its release.”
Reyaz Ahmad Raina, Arsh’s father said that he has been singing since he could barely talk, before turning four. “The neighbourhood kids and siblings would make him sing. He could memorize long lines and words at a time when he couldn’t even pronounce words correctly.”
Raina said that after Arsh turned five, it was during summer vacation and they had more time at home, so he started putting in some effort and started practicing every day. “And then, we gave a routine to it for about nine years. The first song was recorded at home and it turned out quite good. After that, we decided to make a video out of it and got a great response. It gave us more enthusiasm to do better. We wanted to put more effort, so Arsh started doing new and different songs since then,” he said.
Arsh has recorded four songs till now and is representing Kashmir at the national level in the show “FM Tadka Ke Surma”, which is being hosted by 93.5 FM. He is the only participant from Kashmir, who was selected in the top five on the national level.
Arsh has recorded songs in three languages including Urdu, Kashmiri and Punjabi. He said that he wrote some songs in the Kashmiri language, which has a message for the younger generation to stay away from drugs and social evils and would be released soon
