There’s a sense of languid ease that sets in with the first monsoon showers in Goa, and the folks behind Malhar and the Sea know it so well, they’ve curated their entire festival around it. Proclaiming itself a “musication,” each performance at Malhar and the Sea is meant to melt into the next, almost as if in sync with the monsoon’s unpredictable rhythm. And in doing so, it reminded us that before a song can find its voice, it must find its words. Ronkini Gupta performs on Day 2 of Malhar and the SeaIf there was one thing every artist at Malhar and the Sea understood particularly well, it was that the strongest performances rarely remained one-sided. Malhar and the Sea may not be the country’s most adventurous festival, but what it lacks in experimentation, it makes up for in something far harder to curate: genuine intimacy.