India, Dec. 21 -- Eighties' grunge rock gone horrifyingly off-key - isn't that what Mumbai sounds like lately? A collective rasp of buildings being broken down, highways and metro lines being laid for posterity, of gravel being poured and pounded, compelling people to end rental leases because they are next to a "redevelopment building".

But as I found on a busy weekend evening at the serene Godrej Design Labs in the heart of Vikhroli, if you seek out the city's musical sanctuaries, soothing brain waves and analog wind-downs do transpire.

All for a song

The energy inside the cavernous auditorium of the Conscious Collective at Godrej Design Labs turned into an impromptu singing room. About 250 of us landed up to sing to the animated ins...