Akarshit Kesarwani, a singer-songwriter and live performer from Jaunpur, UP, went from busking at Noida Metro Station to completing 500+ live shows across Delhi NCR in just two and a half years, proving that confidence is not found but built, one performance at a time.
Akarshit Kesarwani: From a Guitar in School to 500 Shows in Delhi NCR: The Story of an Artist Who Started Before He Was Ready
Akarshit Kesarwani was not born into music. He was born on 2 November 1999 in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, into a family with a strong legacy in the medical profession, with doctors across generations. Music was never the obvious path for him. It was never the expected path. And for a long time, it was not even the chosen path. But somewhere between a guitar picked up in school, a corporate job left behind, and a few courageous days of busking at a metro station in Noida, he found his way to the stage and has not looked back since.
A Family of Doctors and a Different Dream
He grew up in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, surrounded by the medical profession. The conventional expectation for someone from his family background was clear. But the journey of Akarshit Kesarwani would take a very different shape.
His first real interaction with music came during his school years, when He learned some basic guitar. He played occasionally, explored it with curiosity, and then set it aside; the way most people do when life pulls them in the direction of what seems more practical. He completed his graduation from Purvanchal University and spent a few years working in the corporate sector, building the kind of stable and predictable career that families feel proud of.
But the music never fully left him. It waited.
The Decision That Changed Everything
Around 2024, He made the decision that would define the next chapter of his life. He stepped away from the conventional career path and chose to seriously explore music as a profession. That decision, made without the safety net of formal training or industry connections, took genuine courage; the kind that comes not from certainty but from the refusal to keep living a life that is not truly yours.
He has never received formal or classical training in singing or music. Everything he knows has come from listening, experimenting, practicing, and learning along the way. He considers himself a student of music to this day, a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and performer who is always in the process of becoming rather than believing he has arrived. That humility is one of the most distinctive things about Akarshit Kesarwani and one of the qualities that makes his story genuinely worth following.
Noida, Delhi NCR, and a Bigger World
In 2022, Akarshit Kesarwani moved from Lucknow to Noida. Being in the Delhi NCR region opened up a completely different ecosystem of opportunities: cafés, clubs, college festivals, corporate events, private events, and weddings a world of live music that he had not fully seen before.
While his original intention had always been to create his own music, Akarshit Kesarwani gradually discovered that live performance was a path unto itself. He realised that artists could build real careers through the live music circuit, and that the stage could teach him things that no studio session ever could.
That realisation led Akarshit Kesarwani to live music. But the beginning was not easy.
Busking at the Metro Station: Where Confidence Was Built
When Akarshit Kesarwani decided to start performing live in 2024, he faced something that every performer faces at the beginning: fear. The fear of standing alone in front of strangers, with nothing between him and the audience except a guitar and whatever he had inside him.
Instead of waiting until that fear disappeared, Akarshit Kesarwani did something simple and brave. He decided to start from the most basic place possible. He started busking.
Akarshit Kesarwani spent a few days busking publicly, including at the Sector 18 Metro Station in Noida. He would stand there with his guitar and perform not for money, not for an audience that had chosen to be there, but simply to overcome his fear of performing in front of strangers. Some of those early busking videos are still available on his Instagram profile.
For Akarshit Kesarwani, busking was never about earning. It was about building. Building the confidence, the stage presence, and the inner stillness that performing in public demands. And it worked. Once Akarshit Kesarwani started becoming comfortable in those open, uncontrolled environments, he began approaching venues and pitching himself for performances. That was the moment his live music journey truly began.
500 Shows in Two and a Half Years
Since starting live performances in 2024, Akarshit Kesarwani has performed more than 500 shows across Delhi NCR in roughly two and a half years. These include performances at cafés, clubs, college festivals, corporate events, weddings, private events, and various other live setups.
The number 500 is significant on its own. But what it represents is even more significant. Each of those shows is a version of Akarshit Kesarwani who showed up, who chose the stage over comfort, and who treated every performance, whether for ten people or a thousand, as an opportunity to grow.
Live music has taught Akarshit Kesarwani far more than just how to perform songs. It has taught him about audiences, stage presence, communication, consistency, professionalism, and the most important lesson of all: the value of showing up even when you do not feel completely ready.
One for the Kitchen, One for the Soul
One idea that best captures how Akarshit Kesarwani thinks about his career is a philosophy he calls “one for the kitchen, and one for the soul.”
The kitchen represents the work that pays the bills: live performances, gigs, and everything that comes with being a working musician who needs to sustain himself through his art.
The soul represents the artist Akarshit Kesarwani actually wants to become: a singer-songwriter who creates original music, develops his own sound, and builds a meaningful identity through songwriting that is entirely his own.
For Akarshit Kesarwani, both are essential, and neither can be sacrificed for the other. Live music has given him the foundation, the confidence, and the financial sustainability to keep pursuing music seriously. Songwriting and independent music remain the larger artistic vision- the reason Akarshit Kesarwani started this journey in the first place.
Where Akarshit Kesarwani Is Going
Akarshit Kesarwani does not consider himself a finished artist. In fact, he is still learning almost everything: singing, songwriting, performance, musicianship, and the overall craft of being an artist who has something real to say and the ability to say it in a way that reaches people.
His biggest focus going forward is to develop himself as a singer-songwriter, release more independent music, and gradually build a sound and identity that feels completely his own. The 500 shows have given Akarshit Kesarwani the foundation. Now he wants to build the house.
He wants to take his music beyond Delhi NCR, beyond the live circuit, and eventually to a much larger, potentially global audience. The stage, for Akarshit Kesarwani, has never been the destination. It has always been one part of the journey toward becoming the singer-songwriter and musician he has always wanted to be.
A Message From Akarshit Kesarwani to Every Aspiring Performer
If there is one thing Akarshit Kesarwani would tell someone who wants to start performing, it is this: do not overthink it. Just start.
You have to be willing to be a little shameless in the beginning. If you do not have a stage, create one. If nobody is giving you an opportunity, record yourself, busk, approach venues, and put yourself out there.
You do not have to wait until you feel completely ready. Sometimes, the confidence comes only after you actually start doing it.
The journey of Akarshit Kesarwani from being afraid to perform in public to completing 500 shows across Delhi NCR is probably the best proof of that. What started with a guitar, a little uncertainty, and a few days of busking at a metro station in Noida eventually turned into a professional journey that Akarshit Kesarwani never imagined when he first picked up that guitar in school.
The stage is not the destination for Akarshit Kesarwani. It never was. It is the road. And he is still on it, still learning, still growing, and still moving toward the artist he is becoming, one show, one song, and one brave beginning at a time.
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