Mumbai is singing

Roma Agrawal on the changing soundscape of her hometown in India

According to the 2016 report of the Central Pollution Control Board, Mumbai is the noisiest city in India

The noises I hear from my homes have changed drastically in the last few decades. Now, I can hear leaf-blowers, the occasional singing child or bird, or a car engine. Mostly nothing. Back then, it was sound soup: hundreds of honking cars, dozens of shouting vendors and barking dogs, then the explosion of a brass band leading a wedding procession.

I lived in Juhu, an upscale residential area in Mumbai, India, during a formative decade of my childhood. The seven-story concrete apartment block in which I lived housed around fifty families: I was friends with many of the children that resided above and below me. The back of the building looked out over Juhu Beach, a chaotic, sandy stretch of fairground rides, food stalls and many, many people. I spent evenings building sandcastles and digging holes, listening to the waves in the background.