2011-batch former IAS officer of AGMUT Cadre, Mr. Kashish Mittal, is an accomplished Hindustani classical vocalist, representing the illustrious Agra Gharana style of music. He resigned the services in 2019 to focus on his long time passion of classical music. He now performs regularly for various events and stage concerts all across the country.
Interacting with Indian Masterminds, Kashish Mittal shared details about his connection with classical music, and why he quit the civil services.
LOVE FOR CLASSICAL MUSIC
Born in Jalandhar in 1989 to IPS officer Jagdish Kumar and Sangeeta Mittal, former IAS officer Kashish Mittal was introduced to Hindustani classical music at the age of eight years. He has completed his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi and soon started preparing for the prestigious Union Public Service Commission examination. He cracked UPSC in his first attempt.
Recognized as an ‘A Grade’ artiste by the All India Radio and Doordarshan and an ‘Established artiste’ by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Government of India, he is considered as one of the very promising young artistes of Agra gharana and has carved a special place for himself in the Indian classical music scenario.
Along with his academics, schooling and college, Mr. Mittal had music all along by his side. He says that he always wanted to continue it despite any other field he was pursuing academically or in work.
“Even in school and in IIT Delhi, I used to perform extensively in the cultural festivals and music festivals that took place in different states. Music has been a part of my life since childhood,” he shared.
UPSC JOURNEY
Civil service is part of his family. His father is an IPS officer, so he grew up taking inspiration from him. “I wanted to try the services and see what impact I can make in the society at the large. After completing my graduation, I gave the UPSC CSE examination and cleared this prestigious examination in my first attempt and joined IAS at the age of 21,” Mr. Mittal told Indian Masterminds.
He further said that his nine years journey as a civil servant was full of enriching experiences. As part of his career in the IAS, Mr. Kashish held various administrative positions, including Additional Deputy Commissioner of Chandigarh, Deputy Commissioner of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. He further moved to the central deputation in the Ministries of External Affairs and then to NITI Aayog, Government of India, as Additional Principal Secretary.
“I luckily got the flavour of district, state and central government in this journey. I really enjoyed this experience, and it was satisfying as well, seeing the impact that I created in the 9 years,” he added.
QUIT CIVIL SERVICES
When asked why he quit the prestigious service, Mr. Mittal said, “I have been thinking earlier as well that at some point I might want to transition and give more time to things I like to do. I did try to continue music along with my work, but at some point, you have to take a call to devote enough time and bandwidth to an art form. An art like this is the eternal journey.”
He now performs regularly in various concerts and music festivals all across the country. Classical has been the foundation of what he has learned and performs. However, there are similar genres like semi-classical, folks, and sufi, which he performs depending on the context and the audience.
AWARDS
Mr. Mittal has been conferred with numerous awards and honours including the Punjab State Award for Art and Culture by Chief Minister Punjab (2007), Saraswati Samman by IIT Delhi (2010), Naad Shri Samman for significant contribution to Hindustani Classical Music (2018), among others. Even as a student, he bagged several National Scholarships in music and academics, such as the Centre for Cultural Resources & Training (CCRT), National Talent Search Examination (NTSE), and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Scholarships.
