Where it is Bhojpuri Bidesia folk songs or Malayali Kathu Pattu, letter songs between north Kerala and the Khaleej, or Bangaldeshi migrant poets in Singapore, songs and poetry are oral archives of love and longing for migrants are powerful.

Anniversaries/Birthdays are occasions to make time and consecrate the ritual marking and hence making life, a pause in this pandemic to say a mumbling prayer in the midst of a stillness which all of us have been mulled in to, a normal which has been forced upon us, a language deeply insufficient for our times. Metaphors are empty of valency, and meanings need to be refreshed, hence the residues of normalcy need to be celebrated with souls who care.