Having had a prior relationship with Healthserve, a non-profit organisation that provides medical care and support to migrant workers, I decided I would occasionally drop by their office along Jalan Besar. On one of these visits I met a friendly group of Bangladeshi migrant workers including Ahmed and Hasan.

 

As I started to befriend them and share about my project, Ahmed in particular was very interested in my work as a musician. There also happened to be a guitar in the office which I happily played some tunes on, and Ahmed would eagerly show me video clips of Bangladeshi musicians in hopes that I could imitate them (which I tried my best to!). By the end of the day they had affectionately given me the Bengali name "Nil Akash", which means blue sky.

 

Over the next few visits I met Ahmed again and began to teach him some basic chords on the guitar, and learnt that he has always loved music from a young age but never had the opportunity to learn it. As he opened up more to me about his personal struggles I felt a sublime mixture of sadness for his circumstances and joy in the fact that I was connecting with someone across cultures and widely different backgrounds.