The Janata Curfew announced on Sunday, March 22, didn't only ensure that the sounds of taalis, thaalis and conch shells pierced through every ear but also had many break the rules of social distancing — the need of the hour — to take to the streets. "Rather than this display of public spirit, some of us felt that other questions needed to be raised. Not everyone was out in their balconies and not everyone has a balcony. We found ourselves retreating into a certain kind of quietude," shares Pallavi Paul. While social media was occupied with the same, resounding sound levels, Paul started thinking about ways of measuring silence.

As part of Sunaparanta Centre of Arts Goa's ongoing series Surviving SQ (self-quarantine) where they put out an open call for artists to share strategies on coping with this period creatively and positively, Paul, 32, developed Share Your Quiet. The project involved asking people what to send a 10-second recording of what they encounter in isolation. What it resulted in was a collective symphony created by merging clips sent from all around the world, including countries like Serbia, Portugal and Norway. There's the chirping of birds, the rustling of the sea and the clock that refuses to stop ticking.