On weekends she’d meet friends at a corner café where the playlist bubbled with everything from old film scores to fresh indie tracks. When the song crept into the speakers—via someone else’s playlist or the café’s eclectic choices—Meera felt a small, private joy. Faces around her would soften, conversations drifting into the same rhythm. Once, a stranger at the table across from hers hummed the chorus under his breath, and Meera smiled without thinking. Music, she’d come to believe, is less an object and more a shared weather pattern; it passes through people and leaves the air altered.