Poulomi Deb

Diwali’s at our doorstep before we could even begin to smell it, and with it comes the annual, firecracking question of What To Give. Each year, the sweets arrive in tins and the tins are stacked in the corner of the kitchen, where they wait to become doomed receptacles for something else (buttons, receipts, a single mysterious bunch of keys).  So this guide’s about gifts that are meant to leave an impression, handpicked by the Time Out India team. Gifts that'll excite, titillate, and actually be used over and over again, rather than ending up regifted or emptied out into the toilet the next day. Some are made of wood, some are made to be lit, and one is made to be worn by a man who swears his wardrobe is fine. A few are for the people who live inside films the way other people live inside cities. One is for the cousin who arrived at the party late because she needed her coffee fix and still another for the friend who’s skipping it entirely. Grandparents are accounted for. So are bosses and forbearing Diwali party hosts! Recommended: Looking to do some in-person market crawling? These Diwali bazaars and Mela in Delhi in 2026 have craft items that make for fabulous presents. 

  November in Delhi is for making plans, and then making more plans. It’s a criminally underrated month, sandwiched between oh-so-mighty October and turn-my-life-around December. But with the weather FINALLY on our side, the city’s cultural calendar is filling up faster than you can say Diwali.  This month, you could spend an afternoon looking at contemporary art, an evening dancing to international electronic music, and the next day debating politics over Kunal Kamra’s latest comedy set. Or you could simply follow your appetite, which will take you from regional food at Sunder Nursery to the sprawling stalls of Horn OK Please. The trick, as ever, is figuring out how to fit it all in. Adam Port of Berlin-based collective Keinemusik is bringing his melodic, groove-heavy sound to the capital, while Amsterdam duo ANOTR are set to make their Delhi debut. For those who prefer their live music with a few decades of film history attached, A.R. Rahman’s Wonderment Tour promises a journey through a catalogue that has soundtracked everything from first crushes to questionable karaoke choices.  Of course, not every outing needs to involve a ticket that costs a small fortune or a dance floor you’ll need the next morning to recover from. The India International Trade Fair returns to Bharat Mandapam, bringing together exhibitors from across India and abroad for the sort of expedition that begins with browsing handicrafts and ends with several unnecessary purchases. Dastkar’s Grand Handloom

Delhi has never been short of stories, and this week (i.e. between November 2 and 8) it’s getting to tell a few of its own. On Thursday, the Yamuna takes the mic in Yeh Sheher Nahin Mehfil Hai, narrating the capital’s many avatars, from Indraprastha to New Delhi, through Kathak and theatre. It’s a date with Dilli’s past, and one that comes with a pre-show Hi-Chai. If festive shopping is on your mind, Dastkar’s Festival of Lights bazaar is packed with handcrafted decor, festive textiles and indie gifts, but it wraps up soon, so don’t dawdle. And when you’re ready to slow down, Defence Colony is the place to be. Avinash Chandra and his daughter Alita Chandra hold an intergenerational conversation on paper at Haptic Memories, Rina Banerjee takes a playful, poetic swing at the colonial gaze, and XXL’s group show brings urban contemporary and post-graffiti art to the neighbourhood. With cafes and bars close by, it’s easy to turn a gallery visit into a whole afternoon. Here’s what’s on in Delhi this week. 

Delhi's got at least a dozen places where ghosts and djinns are said to keep regular hours, and we've rounded up some of the most bloodcurdling ones for you. This is a city that has been built, burnt, renamed and built again, seven or eight times. In between leaves and concrete roads, a Tughlaq left a hunting lodge, the British Raj left a tower, scores of people left gates that no one in today's traffic can quite bring themselves to detour through. On a Cantonment road, a woman in a white saree is said to keep pace with cars, as though the speed limit were an offensive rumour. Elsewhere, when you stop for a smoke, a headless angrez is said to lift your lighter from your hand, the last small imperial habit of taking what isn’t his. A begum and her dogs may take offence if you treat their waterless palace as ruins.  Or they are all just drunk folks in the dark. Who is to say? This Halloween, the city is teeming with them anyway, as it is at its racier costume parties. It may be worth ending then, then, with stories that are older than carved pumpkins and witch hats, older than the word Halloween itself. A djinn, after all, came long before a gin.  Go to these sites in daylight, if you have any sense. Some, like Khooni Darwaza, can only be seen from the outside. Carry matches and wear walkable shoes either way. Also Read | The best overlooked heritage spots in Delhi and A trans conservationist’s guide to queer heritage in Delhi

Editor's note: This guide lists the very best places to sample Bengali food across Delhi, Gurugram and Noida – from the OG restaurants serving hearty Bengali fare to shops serving sweets and even supper clubs putting a spin on traditional fare. The reason this guide goes beyond just restaurants is because some of the best food's found in the most unconventional of spaces. This guide also serves as a comprehensive list of places to visit during Durga Puja each year.  There are certain things to be known about probashi Bengalis, the ones who live outside West Bengal. We must don surprise when we come upon one another in the city. We call in sick each year as Durga Puja approaches, as though the body has its own employment calendar. We will sneer, with great finality, at anyone who dares to question the potato in our biryani or malai in our prawn. The food’s our ultimate cure for homesickness, after all: preceded by fish chop and kasundi, followed by a long, drawling nap.  Bengalis in Delhi: A history  CR Park may be the bustling mini-Kolkata of the capital today, but it was not here that the first recorded Bengali resident lived, nor the first Kali Bari. For that, look north. As India’s capital shifted from erstwhile Calcutta to Delhi, so did government officials from Bengal. By the 1920s and 30s, enclaves had already carved themselves into Kashmere Gate, Daryaganj and Karol Bagh, where the city's first Bengali clubs and sweet shops opened their doors.  Why CR Park is the best

Not very long ago, exercising in Delhi meant a resigned jog around the colony park or a gym membership that peaked on January 3. On any given Sunday now, Delhi parks are doubling as Instagram content studios. Mornings see the Noida Expressway service road literally overtaken by runners in matching kits, and the Aravalli foothills are full of Gurgaon-ites who have discovered, somewhat to their own surprise, that they enjoy the outdoors.  Is this part of a new culture? I think it's just the chronically online iteration of our desire to touch grass – community in this form has ridden the boomer yoga wave, the millennial football-in-the-evening, the Gen Z looksmaxxing – it’s really something that I hesitate to call a trend. The appeal isn't necessarily about becoming an athlete, either. These clubs have made exercise feel less like another item on the self-improvement checklist and more like a reason to leave the house. A Sunday morning run can become breakfast with strangers, and a cycling group can turn a familiar stretch of NCR into a route you’ve never noticed. And there’s plenty to choose from. Delhi NCR now has running clubs for beginners and marathon hopefuls, cycling groups that range from leisurely rides to serious road training, and hiking and trekking communities that head out towards the Aravallis and beyond. Some are competitive, some are resolutely social, and some seem to exist primarily because nobody wants to make plans one-on-one anymore. Whether you want to r

My day begins with workplace conflict. How the hell does one pace their booze for a drag show that begins at 1 am? A tribute to Dolly Parton, in Delhi’s hottest of queer bars Kitty Su, no less. Nitya and I find ourselves in a back-and-forth all afternoon. This would be her first drag show ever. Serious work’s at hand. An espresso martini will keep us awake! No, I don’t like espresso martinis. I’ll drink something else. Let’s do (gatekept regular spot). That’s too far man. I’ll go wherever in CP. I’ll go to Mars. No we are not doing beer!!! It takes until 9pm to agree on (gatekept regular spot) and scram. It doesn’t take long for Nitya, bedazzled up herself without any prior instruction, to get over the fact that I’ve chosen to wear a blazer over a leather skirt and thick eyeliner. We pick our cocktails in a quick consultation, take to the dance floor, and eventually, find ourselves perched on the outdoor stairs to the terrace… trying to chase hints of winter in the Delhi air. ‘I feel like it’s going to be pink and loud with glitter everywhere when we reach. The show will obviously be late because queens need to dress up and get ready to lip sync, right?’ She pauses to drink. I neither confirm nor deny. When we reach The LaLit a little after midnight, we are greeted by silence. The five-star-hotel entrance sort of silence. It is broken only by Nitya’s wondering if we’ve reached far ahead of time. We are soon escorted to Kitty Su through a small door near the dining area. The t

Googly-eyed, with tongues occasionally flopped out. A swing of an engraved guitar into the air. At least four beer-stained chairs. Our throats are straining as something that sounds vaguely close to words hurls out. Oh well. It’s easy to let go. We’re all already slamming into each other, those of us in the ironic eye of the storm, the moshpit. But the second a glass breaks, or a kid wearing an Iron Maiden is trying to step on the stage, we break away, look out for them, and return.  What are we really doing at an ‘underground’ metal gig? Here’s a quick definition: distorted, screaming music, mostly heavy on every instrument used. Some call it evil. But those folks haven’t been part of a crowd of adults who’ve sat in a seconds-long formation to row a boat, made out of air, to the sound of Viking melodic metal on the floor. Nor have they been in happy tears, managing just enough breath for a Slipknot karaoke afterparty, at 2am. It’d been a while since I hit a metal gig, and as a regular goer of many years across cities, I kid you not: I felt something like comfort. Metal can be… childish. It’s vulnerable. You get creative with the insults, and then you grin. This was Delhi Underground Fest 2, part of the roaming Sick Tour by Kolkata Metalheads at Siyah Arthouse in Saket. It turned out this would be one of Siyah's last gigs. Metal’s not an easy scene to run – it’s a dog-chase of venues, special sound setups, licenses, the works – but Delhi's community of entrepreneurs and musi

Wake up long before September ends, please. We might not be talking about it yet, but the winter lull will be sooner than you think. Not that it’d stop us – but this month’s calendar is especially jam-packed with a bunch of stuff. Start with the music, because there's a lot of it. Ankur Tewari lands at The Piano Man touring Mr Faarigh, nine new tracks that lean into longing and travel the way his writing always has. Over at The Dome, inside a ballroom with fifty foot ceilings and enough Art Deco detail to make you forget you're in a hotel, an evening of Rafi classics is being staged with live vocals and a full ensemble. Purple Cassette closes out a nationwide tour on home turf with a garage rock set. And if you'd rather lose a few hours to something stranger, Mandragora's psychedelic house sets. The sheer scale of South Side Story will also happily oblige with some more range. The theatre asks for more patience this month, and rewards it. Virasat, staged at Sunder Nursery, spends four generations watching a family come apart, through cooking and cleaning and the small negotiations of daily life rather than any single dramatic moment. Malavika Sarukkai does something even rarer with Dance with Space: instead of just performing Bharatanatyam, she talks you through how it's built. Solanki, a former maths teacher who now makes a living being funny about fatherhood and gym delusions, brings his set to Kamani for anyone who'd rather laugh. Want to go somewhere that doesn’t involve

Over the past half-decade or so, much has changed in the way we live, work and play in our cities. It wasn’t too long ago that lockdowns rendered the city centre all but obsolete and brought to the fore the vital role of our immediate neighbourhoods and communities.  Now, the balance has been restored. Our local neighbourhood remains fundamental: mini-villages where the barista knows your order, where local restaurants, bars and indie businesses thrive, and where communities continue to band together for all sorts of cool stuff, from art walks and day festivals to creating greener streets and pedestrian-friendly spaces. And six years on from the pandemic, the city centre is seeing a renaissance, with brand-new music venues, galleries, coffee shops and more opening up and welcoming a new generation of hybrid workers and the back-to-the-office crowd (and, of course, city-breakers and tourists).  On this year’s list of the world’s coolest neighbourhoods, you’ll see this mix play out. There are downtown hubs and seaside strips, homely enclaves and warehouse districts, all nominated by our global network of on-the-ground experts. This lucky lot spends their time exploring every corner of their hometowns to discover the best places to eat, drink, shop and hang out right now, so you can trust we know what we’re talking about. To decide the final ranking, a panel of Time Out editors vetted each neighbourhood against a range of criteria, including food and drink, nightlife, unique loc

Beware, and check in on your family and friends. Statistically, one in five people in Delhi is a big old snob who will talk you through the difference between a washed and natural process Ethiopian coffee. We're well past India's third wave of coffee, of course – it's no longer something that snuck up on us, nor is it an afterthought to chai. Today, we've split in every direction: specialty brews, coffee experience centres, protein coffee, decaf, coffee with a shot of whiskey, coffee matcha – name it or don't, you'll find it. Every month brings a new trend. Delhi is the last city to shy away from anything that’s, well... strong. Whether coffee for you is a morning non-negotiable, a reluctant catch-up-with-friends vehicle, or a flavour and cream experiment, this guide runs on one very simple principle, for your sake and mine. And that is: is the coffee good?

The bookstore culture's not what it used to be, it's true. But come on – this is Delhi. Folks quote centuries-dead poets over beer at dimly lit bars. With a straight face. How could it not be a city of readers? The writing legacy here is absurdly rich – so rich that Delhi's housed and nurtured Meer Taqi Meer's romanticism, Khushwant Singh's bawdiness and Arundhati Roy's meteoric rise all within a single millennium. If that kind of history can't keep e-commerce book-shopping at bay, nothing can. Which is why bookshops in this city still manage to hold considerable sway over readers, and a lot of that has to do with the owners themselves, who've quietly shaped literary trends through the way they curate.  I’ve realised on my bookstore rounds in and around Delhi that browsing can be a wildly different experience depending on where you visit. Each shop here has its own die-hard fanbase and, strangely enough, several are even used to establish bragging rights over fellow readers. Such is the cult of personality. So if you're confused about which bookshop suits you best, here's a guide to point you in the right direction.  

If Dr Frankenstein had lived to move on from human bodies to patching the most optimal parts of bars together, and was a little brighter, Fort City Brewing might have been his magnum opus.  The place does the dim wide-windowed movie-postered hipster as much as it does the orange chandeliers of Indian boomer dreams. It boasts a globe-turning craft beer menu that has ventured into the likes of kimchi – and chocolate, in their latest – but they’ve also perfected chakna offerings that rival even the city’s dive bars. They manage to play Rage Against the Machine at an acceptable volume. They host trivia, froth up run marathons, and screen kooky films, and while they’re at it, routinely break onto best brewpubs lists in India and Asia.  They’ve become one of the few pubs in the city that I’d recommend to people of all sorts.  Unwittingly so. When they started out in 2023, they aimed to find drinkers in their early 30s. Folks who ‘don’t just drink to get drunk,’ as co-founder Ashish Ranjan puts it. Folks who would appreciate the taste of a well-brewed craft beer. The result of a process that has involved running from one government department official to the other and deciding whether to tilt a canister inside a relatively tight spot for a microbrewery, let alone the chemistry and compass of brewing itself.  This crowd has only expanded. Perhaps it helps that Fort City’s located in one of the newly upcoming strips of Hauz Khas, where dance floors are walkable. And that chalkboards a

The second time I hit Shack, a block party had taken over Shahpur Jat from their little white and yellow corner. The techno slammed right into their next-door one-room art gallery and up their first floor, where I must confess I was eventually found dancing like a maniac (that too with a friend who’d, by and large, sworn off clubbing). Mind you, this was in daylight, and free. The phrase ‘coffee rave’ was nowhere to be found. Only the bickering next to the entrance was capable of taking over the music – the ground floor of the cafe, which is where the very lively co-owner Abhishek is most likely to spot you. The first time I was at Shack, the only sound was us chattering away with him, the whirr of coffee machines, the clinks of cups. The place, after all, is ‘meant for bootstrappers’. The plain, warm tones of it exude chill. ‘We don’t need to know where the onion or the tomato in our biryani came from to know it’s good. So we don’t need to know what ‘notes’ are in coffee to know it’s good.’ This two-liner came belting out of Abhishek as he poured out a cup with one of their oldest coffee machines, bending his head over every steady detail. I didn’t think such a combination of phrase and action was humanly possible.  The coffee and food at Shack Coffee Co The coffee menu’s short by Delhi standards, but by and large, strong. We tried both their blends (roasted in-house) in a pour over and an espresso respectively. You’ll want to do the prissy thing of sniffing and gulping thes

Selva landed in Aerocity with the self-professed goal of expanding Delhi’s idea of Latin American cuisine from pre-mixed tacos and spice-dusted mayonnaise for cheese to flavours plucked from both forest and land. Sarthak Sidana, who founded it, says the freshness of South America’s ingredients while visiting his brother, above all, that inspired Selva.  Well, this goal’s been dipped in before, most notably by Eldeco Centre’s Latoya in Saket. Luckily, no one in the capital gives a crap about who’s first. And Selva makes sure it’s never pigeonholed into one showman personality. The first phrase that comes to mind when I walk in is sexy of the Delhi cocktail bar kind. Sleek, sharp-angled, black, gold, and woody interiors dim enough to remind you you’re in a planned ‘hospitality district’, but stopping just short of causing squints at the menu. Squint instead to find an eschewed entrance to the intimate bar, Selva Maya, inside. Find your way in when it's open. It’s a serious miss if you don’t sit at the bartender’s table for at least a third of your time.  The cocktails themselves, with sourced ingredients that the bartenders are nerds about, are outrageously both good and boozy. How dare a pricey Delhi spot do that? The food’s a mix of Nikkei, Peruvian, Mexican, and even fusion Japanese, a combination that slowly grows on me with misses here and there, which is a good thing. It’s a polarising menu (you’ll see why soon), and the table I’m sharing is full of sharp-tongued folk. St

Don’t walk into CMYK expecting to find the next big thing in pop culture, Bookstagram, or even, depending on what you like, literature. They’ve been around for a while in Lodhi Colony, but with their recent boost of two more floors, the bookstore’s all but reinforced their love for huge, hardbound ‘coffee table’ books that veer towards non-fiction, cookbooks, history, and even graphic novels. Here, you discover words and pictures of the kind typically stuffed away in commercial bookstores. To be fair, they do plan to house some fiction… and you’re also spoiled for choice for good reads in Delhi.  At the tempting risk of sounding like a traveller blog of the 2000s, I must recount this, since CMYK's an academic haven just short of a library card. My sister being an economics major and my studying English have inspired several jokes about polar opposites. History and food are near the top of the list of where we find a lot to talk about, where we find anecdotes from our notes that the other finds interesting, and we did, standing in CMYK. The tight curation – possibly, in fact, one of if not the tightest in the city – will inevitably cause a good conversation. Large, pretty picturebooks, of course, help, as does a caffeine rush.  (Meherchand Market’s snowballed with places; my recommendation here would be Devan’s or Roastery.)  We visited CMYK just as their very first exhibition cropped up, too; a set of seven black-and-white photographs of Delhi by William Dalrymple hung arou

Jimbu Thakali’s NCR outlet happens to be their first India foray after several restaurants in Nepal. Founder Vivek Man Sherchan was aware of the fact that they’d now be representing an entire country. This perhaps heightens in a setting like Gurugram’s M3M 65th Avenue, where residents and their families look new openings up and down like a hawk circling mice, and where the international Asian dining is by and large Chinese or Korean.  I’ve walked into an earthen, terracotta setting that’s softened still by subtle green undertones and engravings from different regions of Nepal (even on the bathroom sinks). There are paintings of Gods, there are photographs of the country that I will later learn were taken by a refugee from Germany who stayed in Vivek’s grandparents’ house for three years.  To be clear – it is the playing card, in Delhi, to aggressively theme a restaurant’s setting around a country especially if the cuisine is focused on that country. Make no mistake. At Jimbu Thakali, it’s not a show of gear. The staff here will point you to each area that each item is from. Vivek can go on for hours, I’m confident, about the stories behind the photographs. Lentils and vegetables are imported directly from Nepal.  As lovely as the food at Jimbu Thakali is… please hold. I’m compelled to first appreciate the easy chemistry the staff have with each other. It translates to confidence in a way that PR briefs, I’m afraid, simply cannot replicate. A not insignificant chunk of my even

Monkeys clamber across 700-year-old arches at dusk. With a little less of a disturbance, parakeets streak between the trees. Wild boar have been known to trot across the path just as you're trying to photograph a tomb. Two hundred acres of history, sitting right behind one of Delhi's most visited monuments, the Qutub Minar… and visited by maybe a fraction of the crowds that pour into the complex next door.  Delhi is famously a city of cities, seven of them stacked atop each other across millennia. Mehrauli has been continuously inhabited since at least the 10th century (before the Sultanate, before the Mughals, before the British) and the park holds over a hundred monuments, spanning more than a thousand years of that story. Sultanate tombs, Mughal mosques, Lodi stepwells, a British colonial folly-turned-cafe, and the ruins of Delhi's oldest fort are all within walking distance of each other, connected by dusty forest trails and sandstone markers.  You could spend an afternoon here and feel like you've walked through several centuries. Or you could just picnic, photo-op, stare at the woods around you, spend hours talking, read. You do you. What to find and learn more about Balban’s Tomb: The first thing you encounter after entering the park: a ruined square structure with arched openings on all four sides, half-swallowed by creepers. This is the first place in India where a true stone arch and a true dome were used in construction. Rajon ki Baoli: Built in 1506 during the Lod

Centuries of astonishing history in Delhi, and a large part of how we've responded is by building a bougie sandwich shop next to a 12th-century mosque. It’s almost merciful that 1AQ is one of Mehrauli’s modern outposts, a walk away from the Qutub site and the archaeological park. It’s perhaps best known for housing the Ojas Art gallery, which leans towards contemporary, Indian and tribal-inspired art – a brief, welcome departure from ancient history. 1AQ extends into a distinctive 3,000 square feet space that also hosts a book and design shop with a shopkeeper who’ll take you up on a conversation on what you should read. My friend fondly recalls, upon jokingly saying that they were broke, that they were told the plots and authors of cheaper selections. There is also a large manicured garden with neat little statues. This space was conceptualised by Anubhav Nath and designed by Ranjit Sabhikhi. People say it’s easy to miss on the road, but that’s rubbish. All you have to do is keep your eyes peeled for the brightest primary-coloured gallery you’ll see in a city obsessed with greying out its museums. It offers more than fine arts, too; one weekend you’ll spot a saree fair on its grounds, the next there’s a concert under the enormous Banyan tree (or, if you ask a patron or employee, The Banyan) that lords over the garden. Hottest off the press at 1AQ as I write this is Zetu, Delhi’s first Sri Lankan restaurant, which I must say, makes much better use of the elegance of this spac

Finding Jugmug Thela is the sort of mini-puzzle usually reserved for good small bites found in North Delhi. A saving grace – though perhaps it slightly takes away from the charm – is that it’s easily walkable from the Saket metro station’s Gate 2. You follow hand-painted signs down a lane in Saket’s Saidulajab instead that feels one wrong turn away from someone's aunt's backyard, until fairy lights appear in the dark. And then comes that age-old massive sign. The café occupies a spot in Champa Gali, a beloved little cluster of eateries that many of us who went to college in Delhi decided was a budget indie film setting. Jugmug Thela, which often partners with sustainability NGOs, predates much of the precious-courtyard-café template. The recycled wood, the mismatched bulbs, the shelf of dusty paperbacks, the potted plants; no attempt to try too hard to be hipster, believe it or not. In fact, it could probably scoot by on vibes alone; it sometimes does. You might wonder if it’s worth delving into the fancy fusion dishes. But the food, more than being a special detour in flavour or range, is soothing, which explains why Jugmug is so popular as a last pit-stop. This is particularly true of their pastas, sandwiches, and the Jugmug Specials – their takes on street food. Pair with their masala kadak chai or hot chocolate if you want a hot drink, or a shake if cold. Service is warm, occasionally distracted on weekends when the place fills up, but that’s only to be expected. The best

I can’t count the times that I’ve passed Seven Seeds in a summer evening auto, been caught by the glowy ochre light out of its glass-protected interiors and sentence-case tiled name, and bided my time for an occasion to visit. As it turns out, this coffee shop fits many, and by now, I’ve enjoyed them all. You could be here for a solo cappuccino and a book, a snob taste test, or post a loud-mouthed Humayunpur restro-bar hang at 3 in the morning. Being open till 4am is easily one of the best things about this place, rivalled by the fact that they do specialty coffees as well as their classics, and their surprise espresso martinis later in the night. Even when the wind slaps tissues out of your hands in the outer dining area, and chatter gets loud between not-so-far-from-each-other tables, there’s something very calm about these sky-blue walls, amusing caricatures, and road safety mirrors for decor. Not to mention music at an ideal volume – and they’ve got good taste in jazz. The coffee Many successful small coffee shops in Delhi are so because of one or two consistent picks on the menu that you can sip on while you work. You’ve got your usual choices, like the manual brew, which my friend orders. He’s the type to obsessively stalk coffee beans and their origins online before he buys roasts. And he’s quick to remark that he’s not sure if the beans are roasted fresh in-house. Whether he’s right, he appreciates that it’s smooth without the bitterness, holds its ground even as it c

Pour Over Coffee Roasters, so far, has got three distinct characters – and in concept, they nail the respective feels of their distinct surroundings. One is a suave Khan Market eatery which turns into a bar at night; one’s the earlier-to-close Santushti Complex cafe which gears more towards breakfast and a crowd of all ages, and one’s a small kiosk, perfect for to-gos, operating out of a corporate office in Noida. That’s almost like the ideal kiss-marry-kill of coffee brand outlets. As it turns out, this flexibility extends to the menu. You can sit all day and debate what constitutes a good dining spot in India’s most expensive market or a high-end shopping complex, but to be frank, as pretty as they are, it’s easy to forget once you realise how well-curated the menu is. Food, drinks (coffee and not), hard drinks: a crisply uniform 5 pages each, but a fresh mix of the old and new. Bean history flash cards and palette cleanser soda, here, do more for the experience than you think. The coffee we tried Skip your usual here and go straight for the PO Specials section of the menu, though I suppose there’s no preventing you from the manual brews if you’re that person. The Australian Mocha hits a balance between chocolate and sweetness without thickening itself into a glorified melted pudding. Still thinner is the Vanilla Cold Brew, which, no matter how many times you whisk that spoon and watch it become whiter, packs coffee so strong it could be a premature cocktail. Then rolls in

Zetu’s to be found in an unobtrusive corner on the premises of one of the city’s brightest-hued art galleries, sharing candle-lit headquarters with 1AQ’s good old banyan tree. Yet, unlike so much of its surroundings in the historically wanderable Mehrauli, this restaurant isn’t something you spot by lucky chance at all. It’s Delhi’s first permanent spot for Sri Lankan food, and it was generating laborious strings of chatter long before it even opened in the neighbourhood… which just so happens to house some of the city’s fanciest eats.  You’re led inside with coconut water in hand atop a golf cart, if you so choose. I found myself straightening my back.  Sitting inside, amid cream-coloured and nicked-texture walls with a few stunning paintings (of course), strangely, I zoned out at ease. I walked around the outer dining area, where I’d recommend you take your seat, without feeling like I was inconveniencing fellow diners. As it turns out, this was built into the architecture (by co-founder Anurag Dania), what with the palm trees, ample space between tables, and music a touch too faint. It’s vaguely tropical and the light from indoors ensures you can actually enjoy candle-powered squints at the menu – but make time to see their rotating mini-exhibition inside. Sarah Nikahetiya, a co-founder here and former British diplomat to India, nods vigorously when I ask her about this. ‘I’m from a small village in Britain, and we wanted to retain a sense of community and homeliness,’ she

It’s almost bastardising to review Big Banana, simply because of the chokehold it has as one of Delhi’s absolute best dive bars. I haven’t managed to articulate this in the times I’ve been there, which were mostly spent on ordering the same things and leaving in roughly the same state of happiness, but the grandest thing I have to say is that I love it. It’s a crime that it’s often overshadowed by the biggest daddy of Delhi dive bars – 4S – but that means you can still perhaps find a table here without being jostled too much. The familiar noise of cheer around you is perfectly tempered by the sensible design of the spot: one section’s for slightly calmer catch-ups, where it’s easier to hear, and the other runs into big, grinning, sometimes messy groups of people where recognitions are common. Staff are also incredibly understanding, but firm on noise control, which is perfect. Right opposite of the larger section is a smoking room, for which cigarettes are easily picked up from thekas outside if you’ve forgotten yours. (Though you may get away with being a bum.) I’m not about to tell you what alcohol to order at a neighbourhood bar. But if you want to try out a cocktail here, by all means, do. They’re a Russian roulette in terms of stiffness (this is where it becomes even more lovely that the staff field all sorts of questions, despite how busy they are). Flavours, though, have always found their rightfully-tasted taker. The menu sticks to their names, many of which were prob

There’s been considerable churn and debate about the state of reading in India this year, especially on certain English dailies' opinion pages and Bookstagram accounts. We're in lit fest season now, and it's as full-fledged as ever. Over the coming months, the country’s well-versed literary calendar offers plenty of reasons to return to the page, taking you from Khasi folklore and Urdu mushairas in the Northeast to beachfront conversations on politics and philosophy in Kerala. Across the country, these festivals bring books and ideas out of classrooms, libraries and private reading corners, and into the open, where they can be argued over and celebrated. They also offer a chance to encounter unfamiliar voices, rediscover regional literature and make room for stories that rarely receive mainstream attention.  Whether you're a voracious reader, an occasional bookshop browser or someone looking for a reason to fall in love with reading again, here are the eight best literary festivals across India that are happening between November 2026 and March 2027. Shillong Literary Festival The festival brings together storytelling from across the Northeast, folklore, poetry readings, and unplugged acoustic sessions as the breeze passes your cheek under a pine canopy. A good excuse to make a weekend of a trip to a hill station, too. Kiran Desai discusses her latest novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, while Booker Prize-winning author Damon Galgut joins Janice Pariat for a conversatio

  Twenty-two years is a long wait for a table. The last India-based restaurant on the The 50 Best Restaurants list was Bukhara at ITC Maurya, back in 2004. At the ceremony in Lima on November 4, 2026, that gap closed: Mumbai's Masque came in at No 26 and Prateek Sadhu's Naar, in the Kasauli foothills, at No 49. For anyone new to it, The 50 Best Restaurants is an annual global ranking, and it's decided by a panel of more than 1,000 food writers, critics, chefs and other culinary experts across 27 regions. Voting is confidential, and voters must have dined at a restaurant within the previous 18 months to vote for it. The extended 51-100 list is released a couple of weeks before the top 50 is announced.  Indian cooking did well abroad too. Gaggan in Bangkok came in at No 2 and was named Best Restaurant in Asia, and Dubai's Trèsind Studio placed 28th. Spain's Asador Etxebarri took the top spot. Masque and Naar, by the way, had made it to Asia's 50 Best Restaurants earlier this year. Recommended: Want to sample Gaggan Anand's cooking at home? Check out his latest, Raga, right here in Delhi's Janpath Masque, No 26 Masque sits in a former textile mill in Mahalaxmi. Aditi Dugar opened it in 2016 as a ten-course, tasting-menu-only restaurant, at a time when that format barely existed in India. Chef Varun Totlani now leads the kitchen, which keeps perfecting the textures of modern Indian food. It was No 68 on last year's extended list, so this is a jump of 42 places. It was also named

A dozen WhatsApp groups are demanding to know who's hosting Diwali parties this November, and chances are, after the 8th, they won’t be as active. There’s a sense of business to inflating your mouth with sweets and warning people before they accidentally kick the diyas out. What comes after all of this is over? Whatever you call that feeling, a gallery is a good place to go with it. Several shows deal in memory, migration and longing, and a couple of them let you take something home or perhaps even as a gift. Here are five that sit somewhere between festive and wistful, from an art fair that's kind to your wallet to a museum show about what a single line can carry. CIMA Arts Mela | Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre Most of us have been told, in one way or another, that buying art is for uber-rich people. This fair was conceived to do away with just that. Run by Kolkata's Centre of International Modern Art, the Mela is built for the first-time buyer: over 80 artists, with prices from ₹5,000 to ₹6 lakh. The wall list includes Arpita Singh, Ganesh Pyne, Jogen Chowdhury, Paresh Maity and Jayasri Burman, which is not a sentence I typically find myself typing about something with a ₹5,000 entry point. You'll also find traditional artists from Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha at the show. If you're stuck on what to gift this Diwali, a small print outlasts another box of dry fruits. Your host will also thank you for not adding to the pile. (We’ve got a fuller lis

The Supreme Court has allowed firecrackers in Delhi-NCR for Diwali this year, but with conditions. Only certified green crackers are permitted, and their sale and use come with specific rules on when, where and how they can be used. Come November 9, the ban’s back up, and until then, it’s certainly not a free-for-all. Here’s everything you need to know. To finish up your Diwali shopping, check out our guide to the best Diwali melas in the capital. What kinds of firecrackers are allowed in Delhi this Diwali 2026? Only certified green firecrackers. On November 2, the Supreme Court permitted their use in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). What counts as a 'green' cracker? Only products approved by CSIR-NEERI (the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research–National Environmental Engineering Research Institute), and sold with the necessary licences. And when can I buy them? Sales are permitted from November 4 to 6. Online sales are prohibited, and physical sales are restricted to designated locations. How do I know what I'm buying is legit? Check the QR code. Each box must carry a product-specific one, which lets you look up the manufacturer, NEERI registration, licence details, formulation and test certificate. Delhi Police have also asked buyers to scan the code to verify certification and batch details. When can I burst crackers in Delhi? You’re permitted November 7 and 8, 2026, in two windows each day: 6 am to 7 am and 8 pm to 10 pm. A complete ban returns from No

The Independents is coming back to Delhi. The second edition of the indie book fair will take over Purbosree Mahila Samity in Chittaranjan Park on December 5 and 6, with independent publishers, authors across fiction, non-fiction and children's literature. After a resounding first edition in 2025, it's rather pleasing to note that entry’s free this year as well. Why should you go to The Independents? Early December is a good bit of timing for a city that reads more widely than its bestseller lists suggest. Delhi is the home of the Daryaganj Sunday book market, after all, where a dog-eared first edition lurks under a pile of guidebooks. There are the Khan Market regulars who know the Faqir Chand and Bahrison’s shopkeepers by name, and still a bigger World Book Fair crowd that braves Pragati Maidan every winter with an empty tote bag and spare cash.  While independent publishers have featured in all of these – and many of them have dedicated stores of their own – for years, Delhi’s needed more of a dedicated collective room for the small press, one that’s more bound to curating measured points of view and alternative voices to the mainstream than big author names. That's the space The Independents is carving out. Last year, they had over a thousand titles. They'd announced panel discussions by writers closer to the date, so it may be worth it to follow @india_independent_ for updates on this year's edition. Who’s behind The Independents? India Independent. They’re a collective

Libertario, the Colombian coffee brand that landed with dark blue tiles in Delhi last July, is opening its second space in India. The flagship at DLF Summit Plaza on Golf Course Road, Gurugram, opens to the public on November 3. And it's an even bigger swing than the Greater Kailash 2 cafe that started things off. There are two big additions. One is Libertario's first in-house roastery in India. The other is a coffee omakase, a sensory tasting format built around rare coffees, rather than a menu you order from. Libertario started in Colombia in 2015 as a family-owned specialty coffee company, spanning cultivation, exports, hospitality and retail. It grew out of La Palma y El Tucán, the family's estate in Cundinamarca, which exports to 32 countries. The cafe came after the plantation; not the other way round. Gurugram got its first look on October 30 at a private pre-opening, co-hosted with Soho House Cities Without Houses. The membership extends the Soho House community to creative professionals in cities without a physical House. Libertario co-founders Miguel Villaquirán, a Soho House member, and Arushi Mehra hosted guests from the city's business, fashion, art and creative circles. They toured the working roastery, sampled rare coffees and tried the omakase. Libertario also put together cocktails and food pairings for the night, which the brand says hints at a more experimental direction for the Gurugram space.  The Greater Kailash II cafe is among our favourite coffee shop

Never, ever, get in the way of India's K-pop fans. Weverse Con Festival is making its Delhi debut on March 27 and 28, 2027, the first time the festival has ever been held outside South Korea. MasterCard pre-sale tickets sold out in TWENTY minutes. The waiting room for the general sale begins at 11 am on October 30, and booking begins an hour later at 12. You can book 4 tickets at a time. Brace yourself, because BookMyShow clearly is. The lineup brings together some of the biggest names in the genre: ENHYPEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT), LE SSERAFIM, Hwasa, Eric Nam and Lara of KATSEYE. They'll share the stage with Indian artists Rhea Raj, King and Reble, with more acts still to be announced. The mix of global K-pop stars and homegrown talent should make for a festival that spans genres and music cultures. The two-day festival will take place at the Outdoor Expo Site, Yashobhoomi, in Dwarka. Tickets are now available exclusively on BookMyShow across five categories: General Access, VIP, Fan Pit, Super Fan Pit and Platinum Lounge. Whether you want to be at the barricade or take it all in from a little further back, there's a tier for it. More about the performers for Weverse Con Festival ENHYPEN: The seven-piece group came out of the survival show I-LAND and debuted in 2020. They’ve built a reputation on dark, cinematic concepts and tight choreography, with ‘Fever’, ‘Bite Me’ and ‘Sweet Venom’ among their biggest tracks. TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT): Five members who debuted in 2019

Defence Colony's monthly night out is back, with the neighbourhood’s entire gallery lane staying open till 9 pm. Over the months that I’ve been attending, I’ve realised that the best way to make use of it is hitting the opening shows. And tonight, October 28, you move from Vinod Balak’s unsettling object-bodies to the fierce, funny resistance of Rina Banerjee. Memories opens an intimate conversation between Indian Modernist pioneer Avinash Chandra and his daughter Alita. At Dotwalk, soil holds the weight of forgotten labour and ecological grief, framed alongside the grand old ghosts of Modernism like Ara, Husain, and Bawa. Meanwhile, up on a second floor at Gallery XXL, a new personal favourite, post-graffiti art pushes against the clean, curated walls, reminding us of the street's pulse. Here are all of the opening shows you should look out for on your visit. Other shows are also happening at Shrine Empire, Method, Kalakaar, and more. The nearest metro station to these galleries is Lajpat Nagar on the pink line. Def Col Art Night shows opening on October 28 Vinod Balak at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke (D-58) Dis.em.Bodied H.ours is describes a world where the line between humans and the objects they own blurs, with people assembled as… object-bodies. Human dignity surrenders to the things we accumulate. Drawing from dark humor and bodily transformation, Balak's work creates a subtly unsettling dream. I’m definitely bookmarking this one for Halloween. Rina Banerjee at Vad

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and Delhi NCR is making a whole weekend of it. Between Friday, October 30 and Sunday, November 1, you can bounce between two venues on a party bus, catch Anjunadeep-linked producer Anyasa at an open-air gig, spend two days at a horror convention with live sets by Seedhe Maut, or walk into a Gurugram bar without paying a cover charge. There's a Noida option too, if crossing the river feels like a bridge too far. Tickets range from free entry to ₹10,499, so whether you're going all out on a costume or just looking for an excuse to go out, there's a party for you. Here are six Halloween events worth getting dressed up for. Halloween Bus Crawl by P0lluti0n If you've ever fantasised a Halloween with a runway moment and drag, this crawl from P0lluti0n (a DJ duo we love) has you covered. And even if you haven't, we still think this is simply unmissable. The night starts at Method, an art gallery we love, then a party bus carries the crowd across town to Auro (a bar we love) for round two, so you get two spots for the price of one. Six DJs playing all genres (their words, not ours!), a runway hosted by Phares Wheel, games, drinks and bites. Dress to impress, because there are prizes for the best costume. When: Friday, October 30, 2026, 4pm–1amWhere: Method (4pm–9:30pm), then party bus to Auro (till 1 am)Nearest metro station: Lajpat Nagar on the pink line for MethodTickets: ₹1,500 Nightvibe Open Air Halloween with Anyasa  If your idea of Hallo

From November 1, Delhi will stop vehicles registered outside the capital that don't meet BS-VI emission standards from entering the city. The restriction is part of Delhi's winter pollution-control plan and runs until January 31, 2027. The numbers are large. Transport department estimates, as reported by NDTV, put the number of sub-BS-VI vehicles across Gurugram, Faridabad, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad at over ten lakh. Gurugram and Faridabad account for nearly two lakh, about 70 per cent of them BS-III and BS-IV, along with around 50,000 commercial vehicles. Uttar Pradesh has more. Noida and Greater Noida together have over four lakh below the standard, with BS-IV petrol cars making up more than half.  This doesn’t mean ten lakh vehicles will be turned back CNG and electric vehicles, ambulances, fire tenders and specified essential-service vehicles are exempt from this provision. So are Delhi-registered vehicles, though other pollution and vehicle-age rules still apply to them. Those most likely to feel the brunt are the daily commuters and small-business owners who cross the border to the capital for work. Enforcement will happen at the border. AI-powered Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras at checkpoints and strategic lanes will scan plates and flag vehicles for checks. Authorities are also reinforcing entry points for physical enforcement, particularly on routes from Noida, Gurugram and Ghaziabad, as reported by NDTV. How to check if your car is BS-VI

The Surajkund Mela Ground in Faridabad’s gearing up for a festive weekend. The Haryana Tourism Department is hosting the third edition of the Surajkund Diwali Mela from October 23 to 26, 2026, a four-day celebration of handicrafts, handlooms, regional cuisine and folk culture, timed just ahead of Diwali. It's more or less the festive cousin of the Surajkund International Crafts Mela. While the big annual fair happens in late January and February, this one is built around Diwali shopping, so expect decorations, gifts, artworks and festive essentials alongside the usual craft stalls. Artisans from across the country will be showcasing handloom products and traditional crafts, which makes it a good place to pick up gifts with a story behind them. Hungry visitors are covered too. A dedicated food court will serve traditional Indian dishes and crowd favourites from different regions. Folk artists, dance troupes and traditional performers will take the stage through the four days, and renowned Sufi and folk singer Kanwar Grewal is scheduled to perform. Beyond the shopping and snacking, the mela aims to give craftspeople a platform to display and sell their work, while drawing visitors from Delhi NCR and neighbouring regions to the area. Surajkund, which is traditionally associated with an ancient reservoir attributed to the Tomar ruler Suraj Pal, has long been a hub for cultural tourism in the region. Recommended: Looking for a hotel to stay nearby? Check out the Taj Surajkund – es

Fashion brand NORBLACK NORWHITE by Mriga Kapadiya and Amrit Kumar is perhaps best known for their sense of imagination, bright colours, marrying graphic tee aesthetics with patterns in a truly diasporic way, and collabing with the likes of Nike. This October 2026, they’ve dropped their latest physical store, Public, in Delhi’s Dhan Mill compound. From clothes and bags to matchboxes and bindis, there seems to be a lot to expect. The label began life in a 300-square-foot home studio in Bombay, where the pair worked closely with master tailor Mohammed Ji through its early years, until around 2016. Their design takes traditional Indian textile techniques, from Kutch bandhani to ikat and Northeastern weaves to streetwear shaped by hip-hop and reggae. The recognition followed: a showing at London's Victoria and Albert Museum in 2015, and collaborations with Fila India and Nike. This operation later shifted to New Delhi with a new studio in Dhan Mill, and in 2023 it opened its first community-minded flagship – one that doubled as a venue for live music and artisan showcases.  More about Public  Public took to a new Instagram account (@iheartpublic) to announce its opening, despite NorBlack NorWhite boasting over 164k followers, which is quite the commitment to an artistic difference, if you ask me. Clearly, though, Public retains much of the neon-pop fun that its predecessor had – they opened with a DJ-led party adorned with garlands, coconuts and saffron lager craft beer. The cream