Singer Sonu Nigam is back in Mumbai after spending the last seven months in Dubai with his family. He considers being with his son for so long the most wonderful part of the year for him. “I did miss a lot of things, but the whole world is going through an intense transformation. Some suffer so much more than others, we’re some of the lucky ones,” he shares.

Nigam tells us he was busy recording songs and also had a “formal” concert in Dubai. “It was an indoor concert with social distancing maintained. It felt nostalgic to go on stage... It was a blessing that people attended in huge numbers even in a pandemic,” he says. Nigam, who released two songs during the lockdown, is excited about his latest track. “It is about surrender and is symbolic of my state of mind. One could call it a prayer, though not in a conventional sense,” he explains.

The National Award winner notes that, of late, a lot of indie music is coming out and doing well. “It is a good sign... I hope these guys are able to crack the code to get return on investment. That is important too for musicians,” he says.

Though the recent drug probe in Bollywood has taken the nation by storm, Nigam, 47, says he doesn’t think about it. “There are a lot of opinions and I don’t want to add to the cacophony. Whatever is happening — people losing jobs, making money, the pandemic, images being tarnished — is happening for a reason. That’s my theory of life. Only God knows why he’s doing it. I don’t try to evaluate. I am just a witness,” he signs off.