If you want to fuel your engine, in case the weekdays have left you empty of energy, Darjeeling’s Abhinandan Bardewa aka DEWA’s “Kursi ko Raajneeti” might bring some enthusiasm to your day!
The music video, released on the 15th of August, 2019 has a strong message to the people, asking them to stand against the system that tries to divide them. With a beat that’s both groovy and energetic, he weaves his words in sync with the tempo of the music.
He cites Mobb Depp, Uniq Poet as a few of the artists who inspired him with their music. “I learned about hip hop when I was in Class 9, and slowly understood the perspective. I compared the lives of people in America and back home in Darjeeling. Then I realized how the world had become – socially and politically.”
He has been writing poems and journals from a young age, so his writing habit was cultivated early on. Although he didn’t decide on what genre to write about, he realized rap could express what he felt more than any other medium.
The biggest motivating factor for him is his father since it was he who took DEWA to his first concert in Mirik, where the Nepali band Mantra had performed. In a few more years, his father’s social and political activism led to dismissal from his job, which made DEWA realize his inclination towards writing songs that spoke about current issues that plagued his community.
“There are lots of opportunities here, but we can’t seem to use it. The younger population are either into drugs or migrated abroad. I realized one day I will be in the same position and that thought bothered me. I thought that nobody would listen to what I had to say but maybe through music, maybe they would and even appreciate it.”
Currently, Bardewa is studying at Drama and Theatre Arts at Assam University, having completed his senior secondary education from Army Public School, Sukna and his secondary from Snowdrop School, Mirik. He hopes to make more music in the coming months and believes that he has to be real with what he has.