Khula Aakash (Acoustic)

“Perhaps the butterfly is proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness and still become something beautiful” 🦋 - unknown

Our lives are filled with uncertainty, especially in times like these. These last couple of months have been a reminder that more than anything we all need to practice gratitude... for those risking their lives to keep us safe, for our health, for the food on our table, the shelter over our heads, and most importantly for the love we share and experience with our close family and friends.

Khula Aakash is a song about freedom and freedom truly is the greatest gift we can give ourselves. I hope that this song reminds us all that we are resilient and that we all will get through this.

Love,
Astha

Ma Sadhai (Acoustic)

Formerly performed by singer-songwriter Axata Singh, “Ma Sadhai” is a song that I used to love performing back in the day, long before I even started writing my own songs. I still have memories as a teenager digging into Nepali music sites for hours, downloading songs and learning how to sing and play them on the guitar. I must add that this was well before the YouTube era, so to find beautifully written Nepali pop songs back then was extremely challenging and rare… especially to find songs sung by female artists. I had the honour of tracking down the original songwriters and getting the permission to sing this song for you all today. Originally recorded in 2002, written by Bhasker Rai (Xmarica) and produced by Kashish Das Shrestha (@kashishds), this song is truly a gem. I was considering creating a fully produced studio version, but I think it sounds so great acoustic that I’ve left it as is. I hope you’ll love this song as much as I do.

Love,
Astha.

Original Song Credits: Vocals: Axata Singh and Shakil Rai
Written by: Bhaskar Rai
Produced by: Kashish Das Shrestha
Guitars: Bhaskar Rai and Amit Shrestha
Keys + Shaker: Kashish Das Shrestha
Bass: Pranab Singh

Here’s a link to the original - the only upload I could find on YouTube:  

Muskuraye (Acoustic)

I want to dedicate this song to my beautiful Mamu and Baba - for all the sacrifices you’ve made for us and continue to make - to give us the life we've always dreamt of. My mother pushed me to follow my passion and my dreams no matter what while carrying myself with grace, pride and humility.

My father taught me to be strong, balanced, independent and to be the empowered woman I am today. Hopefully, someday when I have children, I will be able to do the same for them. I wrote this song about 10 years ago when I was first visiting Kathmandu after many years of being away from home and growing up in Canada.

Performing this song for you all today has made me indulge in a lot of nostalgia and I'm very thankful for that :) 🌻.

Love,
Astha