Rapper, singer, and songwriter, Akash Ahuja can’t seem to stay out of the headlines. From being the first Indian to be on a Times Square billboard and the first Indian to have a solo song on the iTunes top 100 and top 50 charts to setting records with each song. However, when Ahuja released the music video for Nini, he was suddenly trolled by thousands of blogs and meme pages across India. What started as light-hearted memes and internet jokes turned into serious cyber bullying with the young artist receiving several death threats by teenage boys across India. He was poked fun at for everything from his style to his music.
How did Akash respond? By funding graphic design programs and computer education for the same people who bullied him so they could have a brighter future. Akash’s latest song ‘Blessed’ talks all about this. The chorus itself summarizes his thought process, “So tell my haters I got love for ya. There’s nothing you could do to bring me down, oh yeah. Cuz all we do is spread love on this side. And all I do is keep God on my mind.”
Akash tells us, “Loving someone or something is one of my favourite feelings ever. I try to make every situation an opportunity to spread love. It’s what makes me happy.”
Akash collaborated with Computer Shiksha, an organisation that aims to distribute computers and teach students about computers in areas where technology is still alien. Computer Shiksha, is a certified non-profit organization who not only provide computers, but also delivers a complete package including video course-ware, training, monitoring, evaluation, free lifetime maintenance support and certification all as a free service to the society. Akash has always been a philanthropist and this time he chose to donate some amount to the organisation, who is involved in such a noble job.
Pradeep Marwaha, Vice President of Computer Shiksha says, “We admire Akash’s work and having him join hands with us feels good. We aim at making a computer friendly society where the sustainability in this these digital times becomes easy for everyone.”
In recent times, due to the advent of social media and digitalization, cyber bullying has gained momentum. This misuse of technology is a bane but surely, artists like Akash know how to deal with it holding their grace.