World Music Day 2025..."When Music Found Me—Again and Again"

Music has never just been background noise in my life. It has been a companion, a diary, and a safe space. It has found me in my most honest moments — when I was quietly joyful, & when I was quietly broken.

On this World Music Day, I am not writing as a professional or someone quoting research. I am writing as a girl who grew up learning & humming Rabindra Sangeet in a Kolkata home, holding on to lyrics like they were a soft shawl on cold days. Because for as long as I can remember, music has been where I go when I do not know where else to go.

A Childhood Wrapped in Song

As a child, I was always drawn to music with meaning. Not just catchy tunes — but songs that said something, that made me feel understood. Rabindra Sangeet became my emotional compass early on. The way Tagore poured thought & feeling into every word, it helped me process emotions long before I had the vocabulary to explain them. Even now, when I am overwhelmed, all it takes is a few lines of Tagore & I am reminded that I am not alone in what I am feeling. That someone, somewhere, once felt this too & made something beautiful out of it.

The Comfort of Lyrics

There are people who listen to music for the beat, & then there are people like me, for whom the lyrics feel like pages torn from a secret journal. I have always been someone who listens deeply — pausing, rewinding, & letting lines sink in. Songs that speak about real emotions, that do not pretend everything is okay, that sit with you in sadness, in longing, in hope — those are the ones I return to again & again.

Over the years, my playlists have become a reflection of my inner world. From the innocence of childhood to the rawness of adult grief, joy, & healing. Music has walked alongside me - quietly & faithfully.

Rediscovering Music Through Love

In recent years, music became new again. Thanks to someone very close to me - my partner, a musician himself, introduced me to a genre I never thought I would connect with- trance music or psychedelic music. Trance music has a rhythm that does not demand explanation. It just carries you.

At first, I was not sure. It felt so different from the emotional, lyrical songs I loved. But slowly, I began to hear it differently — not with my ears, but with my body. On certain nights, when words felt too heavy or I was too tired to process anything, trance gave me something I did not know I needed. A release. I realised that healing does not always need language. Sometimes, it just needs a beat that matches your heartbeat—and then softens it.

Music & Mental Health: Not Just a Topic, But a Truth

I have had days, especially in recent years, when my mental health felt like a maze - days of self-doubt, exhaustion, & loneliness. On those days, I did not want advice. I did not want fixing. I wanted to feel held.

And somehow, music always showed up.

A song from childhood. A line that felt too accurate. A trance loop that quieted my thoughts. Music became my mirror when I could not look at myself, & my friend when I did not have the words to reach out.

As someone working on mental health, I see how often we focus only on talking as a form of healing. But for many of us, especially those carrying silent battles, music speaks when we can not.

If You Are Reading This…

If you are feeling off lately, tired, numb, anxious — try reaching for a song. Not to feel better, but to feel something. To feel understood. Music may not solve everything, but it stays with you when solutions feel far away.

Build a playlist that speaks to your seasons — one for sorrow, one for hope, one for stillness, one for starting again.

Or don’t build anything. Just press play. And breathe.

Closing Note

Music has met me in every version of myself — quiet, angry, growing, grieving. It does not care who I am or what I am going through. It just stays. Patient. Gentle. Ready.

On this World Music Day, I want to say thank you — to every song that held me, to every lyric that healed me, & to the person who taught me to listen in a new way again.

May music find you, hold you, & stay with you too.