It was 2012. I was in the second year of college, Nokia QWERTY phones were still in use, and most of us believed in the rumour that the viral Gajendra Verma song Emptiness (tune mere jaana) was sung by an IIT Guwahati student named Rohan Rathore, who “died of cancer” just 15 days after composing it for his unrequited love.

Two songs made it to the top of the charts that same year – Ed Sheeran’s Give Me Love, and Macklemore’s rap number Thrift Shop, sung with Ryan Lewis and Wanz, which won multiple Grammys.

I remember that both songs would play multiple times during a day on 9XO, the popular English-language music TV channel.

Being a fan of soft rock ballads such as Billy Joel’s Piano Man, Elton John’s Candle in the Wind, John Lennon’s Woman, and Queen’s Love of my Life, I was naturally biased in favour of Sheeran’s Give Me Love, a song that spoke of paint-splattered teardrops on shirts and a rhythm which gradually built up, as Sheeran hummed about blood turning into alcohol, to his screaming, guttural refrain of “Love me”, sung with a searing urgency.

Fourteen years later, fast forward to 2026. I have graduated from college, and also from being addressed as “bhaiya (brother)” to “uncle”.

And I have chosen Macklemore over Sheeran.

Because despite his reputation of being one of the best singer-songwriters of our time whose lyrics explore and understand the complexities of human emotions such as love and pain, Sheeran chose to stay silent and look the other way, even as a genocide perpetrated by Israel keeps wiping out countless innocent Palestinians on a daily........

© The Wire