Me on mute vs. Me on unmute, in a meeting when I’m working from home.

When I’m on mute listening to others, everything around goes silent:

I hear the ticking of the clock which is hanging in the other room. The winter breeze gets so soft, even a leaf of Asopalav tree in my yard takes 60 seconds moving to and fro. I sense how the droplet left on the kitchen tap took 10 minutes to fall. Sitting in Ahmedabad I even hear the faint sound of distant Bangalore traffic.

When I turn on my mic for my turn to speak, everything gets noisy:

My grandparents in the other room turn on the TV with 2000 volume, hitting the remote on the table as to why it’s not going up to 5000. A local vegetable vendor enters in our area shouting “aaloo lelo”. A baby in our neighborhood starts crying with all its energy, where the parent is carrying and walking around to make her not cry. Something urgent comes up to my school friends and they keep calling until I respond back with a text or 2 sec call. Stray dogs nearby start fighting and barking as if my house is their battle ground.