Ahead of India's turn on September 26 at the United Nations General Assembly general debate, this year's 'non-assembly' of world leaders on New York's giant stage and the utter absence of gridlock and spectacle in Manhattan has turned the spotlight on the art of the pre-recorded 15 minute pitch at a time of global Zoom fatigue combined with the anxious wait for a still elusive COVID-19 vaccine. Two days in, more than 200 world leaders' teleprompter-led speeches have already rolled from the UNGA production control headquarters.

India's prime minister Narendra Modi is the first speaker on Saturday, September 26; the session begins at 9 a.m. EST (6.30 p.m. IST). In the physical version of the UNGA, some leaders just know how to read the room and some don't. Same is the case with the virtual version of this year's muted UNGA. With no clarity on how speeches at the UNGA are going to make any difference to the human world's pain points right now, leaders with a more intimate understanding of quarantine culture are taking a whole new approach to their pandemic edition UN address. They're giving it a buzz cut, because non-verbal overload is a thing.