For nearly a decade, Kashish Mittal walked the high-pressure hallways of Indian bureaucracy. An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and an alumnus of IIT-Delhi, he held key positions in the Prime Minister’s Office and various central ministries. On paper, it was a life marked by prestige, influence, and certainty.
But in 2019, Mittal did something few could imagine: he stepped away from it all. Not for a corporate offer or a foreign degree — but for music.
“I was serving the country, yes, but I wasn’t serving my soul,” Mittal said in a recent interview. “And at some point, that dissonance becomes deafening.”
Mittal had trained in Hindustani classical music for years. Raag, rhythm, and riyaz had long been his refuge from policy briefs and bureaucratic demands. But music was never merely a hobby. It was, in his words, “the sound of purpose.” So he traded his government ID card for a tanpura.
Since then, Mittal has embraced a quieter, more meditative life. He now spends his days performing, composing, and mentoring young musicians, often weaving spirituality into his concerts. He believes classical music, with its deep emotional vocabulary, offers something bureaucracy never could: transcendence.
His decision to walk away from civil service has drawn both admiration and curiosity. At a time when cracking the UPSC — India’s civil services exam — is seen as the ultimate badge of success, Mittal’s move has challenged the very idea of what success looks like.
“There’s dignity in service,” he says. “But there’s also dignity in silence, in surrender, in music that comes from within.”
Mittal’s story may be singular, but it echoes a growing cultural shift — one where ambition is not about climbing ladders, but about listening closely to the heart’s deepest song.
