Esha Manandhar, 18, is one of the promising young Nepali singers. Her scintillating performance at the Wave Music Utsab catapulted her to fame among Kathmandu's music aficionados. Before that, she had just learned to strum and hum during her SLC break and performed at school functions and at the Alliance Fran?aise.

Esha's real foray into music came after she began singing for Hits FM and was noticed. She wrote to the station about her passion and asked if she could sing for them, they got in touch with her and soon she was singing for the Hits show, Mega Tops. Since then she has performed at various events such as WAVEvents, Moksh Bar and Himalatte Caf?.

Esha began professional voice training at the age of 10 when during her winter holidays, her mother, tired of seeing her at home doing nothing, sent her to an aunt's to learn Indian classical vocals. Esha has been singing and singing ever since.

The daughter of a journalist, Esha is torn between her desire to be a writer and a singer. Until she decides, she is doing both: writing music as a composer and lyricist. She has six original English songs that are slightly autobiographical and she hopes to put in an album soon.

"They are mostly about teenage angst, love and life," she says, quickly adding, "I think it is time I moved beyond that because all my songs are starting to sound the same." Esha's songs are surprisingly mature and sound somewhere between Alanis Morissette and Sheryl Crow.

Were they her inspiration? "I was the one inspiring me," she replies, but laughingly admits that Morissette is one of her favourite singers. She wants to continue with classical vocals training because it helps her with her compositions.

Aarti Basnyat