Just two days before the lockdown in April, Singapore was a sombre, barren site. Like a well-oiled machine winding down for its evening’s rest, the air slowly turned silent. The streets of the business district were empty, a hollow facsimile of the global financial hub it has built itself to be. The humidity in the densely populated melting pot of cultures was less palpable, the desolation tangible—making the people’s final attempts at holding on to some sense of normalcy more poignant.