While listening to this EP and looking at the album art, I found myself overwhelmed with emotion. It wasn’t just a collection of songs. It felt like a mirror. Someone had taken the things I carry every day, the responsibilities, the distance from home, the quiet guilt of chasing something your family doesn’t fully understand, and turned them into six tracks.
I’m talking about Parat by AFKAP.
The Cover Art
Before you press play, look at the cover. AFKAP is wearing a duhle ka sehra with a regular sweater and shirt. No flashiness. Just simplicity. That contrast is the entire EP in one image.
In India, being born into a middle-class family means carrying a growing weight of responsibilities as you age. The sehra signifies that weight. Family. Relatives. Societal expectations. The things you’re supposed to want and the life you’re supposed to build, whether it’s yours or not.
The open wounds on his face reflect the struggles of that life. Yet amidst all this chaos, he holds a small cup of chai. In Indian culture, chai is a moment of comfort. A pause. The one thing you can have for yourself when everything else belongs to someone else’s expectations. For AFKAP, that chai is his music. The simple pleasure that makes everything else bearable.
AFKAP narrates his struggles in a subtle, non-complaining way. He presents them as an inevitable part of life. Not something to rage against. Just something to carry. This EP is a collection of those simple pleasures amidst the chaos. Six tracks. Six cups of chai.
Rukawat
The EP opens with the voice of an Indian aunty interrupting the song. If you grew up in India, you know that voice. The aunty who asks when you’re getting married. The relative who measures your worth by your stability. That interruption isn’t a skit. It’s a metaphor for societal expectations getting in the way of your passion. She talks about marriage. The responsibilities. The life you’re “supposed” to have.
जो भी सपनों के पीछे भागा, उसके पैरों पर लगी है आग। Whoever runs after dreams, their feet are on fire.
AFKAP lays it out: if you dare to follow your dreams, you better be ready to prove it was worth it. Otherwise, stick to the norms. He also talks about his personal conflict. His longing to return to Delhi versus the responsibilities that bind him to Mumbai. The city where the money is versus the city where the heart is.
सपने सच हो रहे यहाँ, वापिस जाने की मेरी भी चाह है लेकिन कंधों पे भार है। My dreams are coming true here, but I wish to go back. Yet I can’t because of the weight I carry.
Anyone who’s moved away from home for work knows this feeling. The guilt of being where opportunity is instead of where love is. Rukawat is the perfect introduction to the EP. The classic middle-class story of balancing dreams and duties, told by someone living it in real time.
Track 2
This three-year-old track is a timeless commentary on how society molds you into what it wants you to be. AFKAP puts it simply:
Everyone is carrying glass but no mirror. Everyone is ready to criticize but unwilling to introspect.
That’s India in two sentences. The constant tug-of-war between societal expectations, personal values, and the voices of parents, friends, and community pulling you in every direction. Everyone has an opinion on your life. Nobody’s looking at their own. It’s a reminder of how rare self-reflection is in a world that’s too busy judging to pause and look inward.
Track 3
AFKAP uses his bike accident as a metaphor for life. He reflects on the importance of going slow and steady, the dangers of rushing towards goals without watching the road. It’s a lesson in patience and endurance. A call to embrace the journey without crashing under its weight.
There’s something honest about using a real accident to talk about something bigger. He’s not reaching for metaphors. He lived one. And then he wrote about it.
Track 4
This track, built on an emo drill beat, explores attachments. AFKAP reflects on how his materialistic attachments have grown while his real, emotional connections have started to fade. The more you build, the more you lose. The more stable your life looks from the outside, the emptier it can feel on the inside.
राहें हो जाती अलग है, फिर भी हाथ पकड़ने का मन है। Paths may diverge, but I still want to hold your hand.
That line captures the bittersweet nature of growing up. The people who mattered most start drifting, not because anyone chose it, but because life pulled you in different directions. And the desire to hold on doesn’t go away just because the distance grows.
Track 5
My favorite track on the EP. A saxophone and flex rap. After four tracks of weight and responsibility, AFKAP does something unexpected. He lets go.
अगर खोने को होता ही है नहीं, तो पाता सब कुछ मैं। If I had nothing to lose, I’d win at everything.
Even with everything he’s carrying, there’s a fearlessness here. A calm, effortless confidence that says: I know the weight. I carry it every day. And I’m still here. Still making art. Still standing. This track doesn’t ignore the struggles. It celebrates surviving them. The kind of song that deserves a blog of its own.
Track 6
The final track is the one that made me cry.
It’s a raw, emotional conversation with himself. But what makes it different from every other track on the EP is the perspective shift. While the rest of the project focuses on his struggles, his responsibilities, his view of the world, this song steps into the shoes of his family. He sees his life from their side. Their worry. Their love. Their inability to express it in the way he needs to hear it.
That shift changes everything. It shows that everyone acts based on their own understanding of the world. Your parents aren’t trying to crush your dreams. They’re trying to protect you the only way they know how. And understanding that doesn’t make the weight lighter. But it makes it easier to carry.
This EP isn’t just six songs. It’s a mirror to life itself. When art can make you cry, reflect, and feel seen, that’s when you know it’s something special.
Six tracks. Six cups of chai. And a man who made the weight of a middle-class Indian life sound like the most important story in the world. Because it is.