Profile

Singer Araj Keshav hails from Mahendra Nagar but was born in Gokuleshwor, Baitadi on February 7, 1981 to Dhani Giri and Neuli Giri. Since his father used to work in India, Araj spent quite a lot of his childhood days in Jammu & Kashmir and in Mahendra Nagar itself. Reminiscing his early days, he shares that when he went to steal some peaches he met with an accident due to which he had serious injuries to his head. He adds, "If that was not enough, once when my father gave me 10 bucks to buy some sweets, I was so excited that on my way to the sweet shop I slipped and fell down from the staircase. These memories are still fresh in my mind!"

Araj received his basic education in one of the local schools of Jammu & Kashmir. After this, he got admitted in his hometown school Kanchan Vidhya Mandir, Mahendra Nagar from where he received his School Leaving Certificate (SLC). For further studies he was sent to DAV College, Dehradun, India where he chose to study commerce. From DAV College he passed his studies till Intermediate. He then joined Siyapiji College in Lakhnow from where he completed his studies till Bachelors.

ENTRY IN THE MUSIC SCENE

While in India for studies whenever he had some free time, he took up music as a hobby. Actually, he didn't have much interest in it but to divert his mind from memories back home and other things he used to spend most of his time learning music. His favorite artist of Nepal has always been Jems Pradhan and soon after coming to Kathmandu, he spent some days looking out for him. His wish was fulfilled and after getting an opportunity to meet his idol, it was none other than Jems himself who taught him stuff related to recording and music. In 2001, on a composition of Jems, Araj recorded his first song "Ghintang Ghintang".

Though Araj has not received any formal education in music, whatever he knows has been taught by Jems. After dedicatedly working for thee years in music he was able to release his debut album 'Different Soach'. This album was marketed by Kantipur Zone and when they didn't fulfill their responsibilities, Araj decided to rename the album and release it again under a different music label. This time, he decided to name it 'Different Soach' -- 'Toss' which was released by Reeyaz. Some songs on it, "Pheri Pani Timro Tasvir", "Sim Simey" and "Sadhai Ma" were well-received by the media. The royalties which he received from the sale of the album was handed over to Bal Mandir, Naxal.

These days, he is working on the release of his next venture -- 'Araj'. He has also started doing a little bit of rap sessions and one song which is already getting popular is "Pani Khaney Neuley" sung by Mohit Munal. He has also sung with Kranti Ale, Mausami Gurung and Preeti Kaur. Having already performed at over 12 stage shows so far, he is at present working as a recordist at Music Work Studio.

ME/MYSELF

My heart rules my head! I am a very shy person and cannot open up to anyone in the first meeting itself. Otherwise I am a very frank person! I dislike people who entertain themselves by gossiping and cheating others.

LOVE AND MARRIAGE

Love should be understood and it is all about understanding. Period. Marriage is a bond. "A year back, I was in love but there was a misunderstanding. We used to meet once a week and more than talking about us and our future we used to blame each other for certain deeds. And when happened we even stopped talking for at least two weeks. So a break-up was certain! When I look back, I feel that more than love between us, we were just attracted towards each other. I am still not able to figure out whether we were just friends or we were lovers!"