This viral singer was once an IAS officer

A casual singing moment turned into a viral storm — and introduced the internet to Kashish Mittal.

Transcript

00:00Born to be a singer and forced to be a DM.

00:06That's Kashish Mittal who ranked 4th in IITJE, cleared the UPSC but gave it all up for music.

00:16Mittal sings with the kind of raw honesty that makes you stop mid-scroll.

00:20I was just sort of singing it there casually and Komal, she recorded it on her phone.

00:27The internet can't stop asking.

00:29All sparked by his soulful rendition of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Unke Andaze Karam.

00:54But the comment section had other thoughts too.

00:57The way people really took it that probably this is Ashneer Grover in his early days or

01:04this is maybe Ashneer after Shark Tank days and things like that.

01:08The video you saw at the start has now gone viral along with some wild claims that he aced many competitive exams and gave it all up for music.

01:29But is that even true?

01:30I secured the All India rank 4 during my IJE entrance and studied computer science at IIT Delhi.

01:39Soon after college I wrote the UPSC exam.

01:42Right after completing IIT I joined the service and served in the IAS for close to a decade.

01:52My last tenure was in the Neeti Ayogh in the vice chairman's office.

01:55Once a civil service aspirant then a principal researcher at Microsoft.

02:02He left the tech giant after 5 years to start his own AI venture before hitting internet fame with his singing.

02:08Rooted in the Agra Gharana, his music carries echoes of a tradition he's known since childhood.

02:13Today, he performs at major music festivals and concerts across the country.

02:20And this is him pouring it all out, one note at a time.