Listen to the original soundtrack of Jai Bhim: The Beats of Dalit Resistance, a musical-documentary on singers Sheetal Sathe and Sachin Mali, who were declared Naxalites in 2011 for giving voice to the Dalit community.

Lata Mangeshkar’s voice defined my grandmother’s youth. I belong to a generation that often rejects new Hindi film chartbusters in favour of indie and international music. Yet, after the last shot is downed and the last EDM track played, it is Tai’s tender “Lag Jaa Gale” that can still make a millennial emotional at four in the morning.

Seventy years after Independence, some choose to rewrite history. We chose to rewrite the alphabet. Presenting a brand-new, updated A to Z for India at 70

Taylor Swift is the modern queen of yearning, offering up a folk fantasy for a new generation in “evermore”. Who better to come forward as the voice of 2020, a year that we have all lived in the subjunctive tense, thinking of what might have been?

In a Tamil Brahmin household, mornings aren’t complete without the holy trinity of filter coffee, The Hindu, and MS Subbulakshmi’s “Suprabhatam”.

It would be naïve of us to pretend that the fault lines between India and Pakistan did not exist or were any less deep back in 2004. But there were still moments when we were able to find a meeting ground, a convergence between our shared roots and cultures. Strings is a reminder of those times.

Sahir Ludhianvi and Amrita Pritam’s tale encompassed euphoria, misery, and everything in between. Yet, when the vagaries of life drew them apart, they chose to craft an alternative reality with another – a love that is liberating. When I first fell in love with a girl, a love that I knew would go nowhere, it was Sahir’s words that I turned to.

If there were to be a physical manifestation of what “being timeless” looks like, Mohammed Rafi would be it. “Tribute to Mohammed Rafi” is a permanent fixture in most taxis in Mumbai and you’ll find his famous classics on the playlist of a backpacking hipster in Himachal.

Surely I’m not alone in feeling like playing a musical instrument is some kind of unsolvable equation, and anyone gifted enough to play them a problem-solving warlock. Not for want of trying, I failed to learn the guitar, bass, and drums – basically every instrument there is in a functioning rock band

Watch Sharvi perform exclusively for Earworm's Arré Sessions.

Shuffling between LA and Mumbai, Zoya is a singer and storyteller in equal parts. Watch her perform exclusively for Earworm's maiden Arré Sessions.

Any good poet should be able to touch your heart – but Shiv Kumar Batalvi had the ability to rip it out of your chest, and then place it back there gently.

The first time I met Amrita Pritam, she told me that a smoke is one of the few pleasures of life. I knew then that Amrita Pritam was the writer – and the woman – I wanted to be.