‘RAJESH KHAR’ (…. An intriguing journey).

We are the inhabitants of that part of India which has quiet an interesting history. When I talk about history I take into account the events as well as the people who were part and parcel of those historical moments or events. Needless to mention that the achievements of people whose names are documented somewhere can be viewed by anyone anytime for reference. So, we have embarked on the journey of documenting the lives of the people who have made a history by way of their achievements or the ones who have the capability to get the journey of their life documented somewhere by creating a niche for themselves professionally or otherwise. The soil of Jammu and Kashmir has produced innumerous people who have made a mark in the civil society by way of their selfless Karma or professional expertise. Today I will take my readers on a journey that is undoubtedly an inspiring one.

Rajesh Khar is a name who needs no introduction to the artists pan Jammu and Kashmir. Despite being born in Kashmiri Pandit family he spent a part of his childhood at the village Kalakote in district Rajouri of Jammu province. It happened so because at the time of his birth in the year 1969, his father Lt. Shri Sham Lal Khar was posted at Kalakote in the Department of Power Development. But, at an early age of 8 years Rajesh along with his parents went back to his native village in Kashmir. Rajesh thereafter spent the rest of his childhood and adolescent years in the remote village of Brariangan in the Anantnag district of  Kashmir. He studied till class 8^th at a school in the picturesque village of Brariangan near Uma DeviTemle. Later, he completed his Secondary School Education at a school in Uttersoo, Higher Secondary Education from M. L. Higher Secondary School, Anantnag.  Like every ambitious individual Rajesh wanted to achieve something in his life that would make his parents feel proud of him.

Like all lower middle class parents in Kashmiri Pandit families in the valley, Rajesh’s parents too wanted him (Rajesh) to have a decent government job and earn a decent living. Despite having a strong urge of making it big in the music industry and clueless of what the future had in store for him, Rajesh like every other obedient boy started serving the State Power Development Department as a contractual employee. But, after a few years he (Rajesh) felt from within that this is not what he wanted to do with his life so he left home with the blessings of his parents in quest of a professional life of his interest. Rajesh had a strong liking for music and other forms of performing arts from his childhood. He often used to write poetry and sing old Kashmiri melodies too. His family and friends appreciated his talent and used to motivate him many a times to follow his passion of becoming an ace performer. But, being somewhat uncertain about how to pursue his passion for performing art or we may say ignorance about how to translate his passion into profession, Rajesh reached Bombay (now Mumbai) to start his professional carrier afresh. As we are all aware of the fact that to survive in a metropolitan city is not easy so Rajesh had to yet again surrender his professional desire and take-up a job in a multi-national company . But as we all know that if we desire to achieve something big strongly, we can’t settle down for anything less. This is why Rajesh resigned from the company .So, he left Bombay and decided to chisel his art of poetry and singing by learning the nuances of music from the famous musicians and singers. What better place would he think of other than his native place? So, he returned to his family and started finding out ways to achieve what he desired.

During the period of chiseling his art of writing and singing Rajesh realized that the poems he penned down used to sound more effective when he composed them on his own compositions. But he (Rajesh) knew that to compose a poetic work one should have at least the basic knowledge of music, apart from the in-born talent. It is an admitted fact that we don’t know what life has in store for us. When Rajesh was in the process of shaping up his career, the unfortunate turmoil gained ground in Kashmir. Due to the unrest, almost entire Kashmiri Pandit community was compelled to leave behind their movable and immovable properties and save their lives which was under threat. Like all other families who got internally displaced Rajesh too had to migrate from Kashmir to Jammu. Although reluctantly but Rajesh yet again had to take up a job as his parents wanted him to do so. After couple of years in the year 1991 Rajesh entered into a wedlock with a Kashmiri Pandit girl. The marriage turned out to be a turning point in his (Rajesh’s) life. As we often have heard that behind a successful man there is always a woman; this happened here too. When the family, especially Rajesh’s better half realized that he is not satisfied with the job, she assured Rajesh of her unconditional support in the process of pursuing the career of his choice.This assurance filled Rajesh with new zeal to follow his passion of making a mark in the society as a performing artist, a writer and a music composer; particularly when the scope of earning a handsome living from the profession of his choice was quite difficult unless one has good contacts.So, the quest to achieve what he desired started again from Jammu. Rajesh had innumerous musical sessions with renowned music composers of Kashmir who too had migrated to Jammu due to the breakout of militancy. With the thought that life is a learning process Rajesh never hesitated in learning the nuances of music from the folk as well as classical based musicians and singers. Among other musicologists, the renowned music director and a proficient theatre artist Pt. KrishenLangoo is the one with whom Rajesh spent his quality time and learned many technicalities that helped him a lot particularly while composing music for his poetry.

Rajesh in almost a year of his marriage started earning a decent living as a musician and singer. Initially he started with solo performances as singer till he formed his own musical group and performed at private as well as government events. Due to his soulful singing and social behavior he (Rajesh) gradually became quite popular amongst Kashmiri diaspora. In the period early1990’s when the wound of leaving behind their home and hearth at Kashmir pained Rajesh a lot like every other Kashmiri Pandit individual; Rajesh translated that pain as poetry on paper in shape of poetry. This was the time when besides performing at various events Rajesh successfully launched his first musical album and the title of the Music Album was ‘Bomb Blast’, which is self-explanatory so it was received well by Kashmiri population in and outside Jammu and Kashmir. The response to his first music album prompted Rajesh to release few more music albums by the titles- ‘Aradhna’, ‘Sumran’, ‘Faryaadh’, ‘2 Room Set’ and ‘Hearath’. One thought which is bound to bother my readers that to release a music album where did Rajesh arrange the finances? The people who personally know Rajesh are aware of the fact that this was possible primarily with the blessings of his parents and then because of unconditional support of his wife like an ideal life partner.

With the passing years, Rajesh increased the amount of hard work that was required to make his name count among those who had created a niche for themselves in the then Jammu and Kashmir State. Meticulously working on his talent, Rajesh soon got recognition in the Kashmiri diaspora as a good singer and a thoughtful writer. Till date he has penned down innumerous ghazals and songs in Kashmiri, Hindi and Urdu languages. Now, the very next thing Rajesh wanted to achieve was that one day he will make all the leading singers of his time sing on his tunes, I mean to say sing the songs that Rajesh would compose as a music composer. Don’t they say that the fortune favors the brave? Same thing happened pretty soon when a local Producer hired him to compose 20 odd songs. This was the time when he composed the songs which were recorded at Kashmir, Jammu and Delhi in the melodious voices of Lt. Shri. Vijay Malla, WaheedJilani, Dr. DeepaliWattal, Shaziya basher,naina saproo ,kailash mehra sadhu,rashida,altaf sahil, Munir Mir, Lt. Rashid Farash, Lovely Chandra and Kiran Koul. There is an incident which I was a witness to, which I feel like sharing with my readers here. It so happened that a music concert organized by Jammu and Kashmir Academy Of Art, Culture and Languages was underway at Abhinav Theatre, Jammu wherein the famous singers pan Jammu and Kashmir were invited to sing the songs composed by the legendary music composers. In this concert when the legendary singer Late Shri Vijay Malla was invited on stage for his performance; out of blues Vijay Mallaji announced that he will not sing any of the old melodies and instead he would prefer to sing the song recently written and composed by a new music composer who has impressed him and has the potential of becoming talk of the music world soon. The Kashmiri song that Lt. Vijay Malla sang that day goes like, ‘Be AaroTeer Mo Laay, Mye’ Haa Cham Maay’ Chae’nyi….’. This incident was talked about for quite some time and interesting thing was that Rajesh heard about it from a person who was one among the audience in the said concert.This song can even today be searched for on You Tube. Rajesh did not carried away by all the praises he got and instead worked more sincerely so that he would achieve more milestones. In a few years the musical group by the name and style of ‘Kongposh Musical Group’, became the highest paid Kashmiri musical group for private marriage functions. Very soon Rajesh also got an opportunity to compose music of dozen  title songs that were earlier composed by  talented composers of State. This was like one more of his dreams coming true. Till now Rajesh has composed more than 100 odd title songs, designed the background score for about  (approx.) 70 odd tele-serials besides writing the lyrics of about 50 odd tele-serials telecast on DD Kashir Satellite Channel. One of the interesting things that very few people know about Rajesh is that Radio Sharda 90.4 FM which is quite popular among Kahmiri listeners owes its success to Rajesh and couple of his friends. Rajesh rendered his selfless service to the said community radio for a long span of 8 years. He is the one who penned down and composed the title song of Radio Sharda 90.4 FM. There are many programs which the listeners still love on the said community radio were originally written and designed by Rajesh. Some of these programs were- ‘Manasbal’, ‘PyendTe’ Puran’ and ‘WaangejWour’. This experience with Radio Sharda 90.4 FM was the period of his life when Rajesh got proficiency as a successful broadcaster too. Soon he cleared the auditions of Radio Kashmir Jammu as the contractual compere. It has now been more than a decade (10 years) that he has been compering the Kashmiri weekly program ‘Pamposh’. Here also the series titled – ‘MyonGaam’ was received well by the listeners. The poets of present time like- P. N. Shaad, ShaadRamzan, Dr. Agnishekhar, KusumDhar ‘Sharda’, Lt. Sh. J. L. Saroor  Pitamber razdan and others are all praises for the writing and music composing skills of Rajesh. All the leading singers of Jammu and Kashmir UT have sung the songs composed by him. It is not only the private marriage functions, Radio or Television where Rajesh made a mark but he also got an opportunity to design music for many stage plays like- ‘Lal’dyad’(Kashmiri), ‘Ake’nandun’(Kashmiri), ‘Rae’siAagur’(Kashmiri), ‘Ghaed bate  Kashmiri (Vomedh)   sare jaha se achaa(Hindustani), Lt. Sh. Kemu’s‘BhaandDuhai’(Hindustani) besides other full-length and short plays. So far as the recognition earned through his performances pan India, Rajesh has been Awarded by various NGO’s in appreciation of his work.But the Awards he cherishes to share the memories of is the much talked about full-length hindi play titled- ‘Ant Haazir Ho’, written by Smt. Meera Kant and Directed by Sachin Dhar at the Annual Drama Festival 2021 organised by J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages. This was so due to the fact that the said theatre play was Awarded for the best Music by the Jury for the festival and that for a short-film in gojri language titled- ‘Ye Rodiya’(the untold apathy) that has been nominated and awarded many times since the year 2021 till date at various prestigious International Film Festivals pan India.

Rajesh had resolved at the outset of his singing career that no matter how much he achieves in his life he will do his bit till he can, to keep the culture of Kashmir alive. One way of doing it was that he continued with his folk-music group ‘Kongposh’ despite getting success as Music Director for Radio, Television, Theatre Plays and Films. Till now he has performed live at more than 2500 private functions pan India.Understanding the fact that not everybody gets the support of family for showcasing his/her talent in performing art, he  launched some new singers too. Some of popular names among today’s youth being- Vishal Pandita, ShivaniJotshi, Sharad Pandita, Shivani Koul and few others whenever he got an opportunity to do so and this he considers another way to contribute towards keeping the culture alive. Keeping pace with the modern technology Rajesh at present has his Audio-Video Studio besides a monetized You Tube Channel (Kongposh). Not many people know that making video of the yearly Maha Shiv Raatri Pooja in Kashmiri language titled- ‘WatakPooza’ by Lt. Pt. PremNathShastri,  for Poiner cassette industry was one of the far sighted idea of Rajesh. Besides, he also has made an Audio-Visual presentation of the mythological story titled- ‘Beeb GarbhMata’(Kashmiri language) to connect the generation next with the otherwise forgotten cultural ethos of Kashmir. Rajesh also offers his services for social causes like performing at couple of marriage functions every year on meagre amounts and also associating with the NGO-  which is actively involved in providing Medical Aid to the deserving patients facing life threatening medical issues.

One might think if a person is so busy in achieving this much in life then definitely his/her family life would be miserable. No, it does not happen with a person who knows how to manage affairs in and outside family. Rajesh has proved to be a good husband to his supporting wife and caring father to his two sons. At this stage of life too, when both his sons are well settled in life Rajesh is always on the move. According to what I know about him, I feel there will be no exaggeration in saying that Rajesh is a self-made man connected firmly to his roots. I remember he once said, “I know today I am among a few Folk and Light Musician and Singers from Kashmiri Pandit Community at present but I want to inspire the youth of my community to carry forward the legacy of Kashmiri folk music”.