Poulomi Deb

Delhi's allergic to being boxed in... and that's especially true this week. While June melts into July, the city has clearly committed to doing too much. The Nizami Bandhu carry a qawwali lineage stretching back to the 1350s; Sultana Nooran is also in town for a Sufi night. But the comedy bench is long, too: Urooj Ashfaq with herhour-long set, Manik Mahna back after houseful runs, Mohit Morani stepping into his first solo, and Utkarsh Sharma doing something more contemplative with Sukoon Tour foranyone who needs at least one day to feel less like a circus. Rajat Kapoor takes a machete to Macbeth, Pulp Bazaar's zines are back for a fourth edition,Bharat Chauhan drops an album launch party, and before you take a breath... there's alsoa crafts fair celebrating Awadh, a sitar legend going electric, and a Sufi-to-club night that is... exactly what it sounds like. Take your pick below.

The particular fluorescent exhaustion of a Saturday evening in Select Citywalk or DLF Avenue isn’t the end of Saket, though that has its occasional delights. This neighbourhood’s charm also exists in a fashion that I’d call the stuff of side-questers’ and souvenir-grabbers’ dreams.  A bunch of abandoned poultry sheds-turned-cafes that became South Delhi’s favourite budget film indie setting, a sixty-year-old ceramics market that’s become responsible for much of my kitchen’s contents, and arts initiatives in the most unassuming of corners… in the same neighbourhood where post-post-modern sports are kicking off, and lowkey bars compete head-to-head with hundreds of Delhi’s best in-big-building dining spots. Several of my Saket favourites are near a metro station, making most of them reachable in a single visit. But no one visits Saket just once if they live in Delhi. As these picks will likely indicate, bringing friends here is great, but it’s rewarding to give some of these spots some time alone as well.

Delhi in July is no joke (except for the literal onslaught of format-pushing comedy shows across the city). There’s a glimmer of hope for patches of rain, but you wouldn’t tell it’s just a glimmer from everything that’s going on across the city this month.  Theatre and art are holding their own. Rajat Kapoor's darkly comic Macbeth – Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, and enough meta-theatricality to give a literature professor a headache. Taj Mahal Ka Tender and Krishna Katha are doing their own interesting things a few doors down. Art that wants you to stay for hours, talk without filling your mouth with too much theory, and patiently flip through pages. Music fills in almost everything else. Jasmin Sandlas for the chaos. The Nizami Brothers for their devotion. Abish Mathew for the people who need their comedy to occasionally break into song. And you’ve got a few interesting organic markets and festivals too. But yes – the comedy scene is this month's real story. The familiar names are back – Abhishek Upmanyu, Urooj Ashfaq, Manik Mahna – but so is something harder to name: a restlessness with the standard one-person-microphone setup. This month has dating shows that pull strangers from the crowd, breakup comedy built on audience participation, and a two-hander from Delhi's own open-mic alumni.  Here's everything happening in Delhi this July.

For all of Delhi’s weather this month of the year, the city’s queer community never fails to pack in a calendar that, at the very least, makes up for the fact that it’s too hot to hold parades in June. You’ve got your shimmer and nightlife, but you’ve also got workshops, screenings, and some brilliant creative work all month-round. These are some of the best, tried and tested. Bring your friends – or even come alone and make some. Happy Pride!

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?

It’s no secret that Indians who travel overseas are – much like our foreign policy in the 90s – increasingly looking east. With centuries of cultural exchange in the region, similar biomes, and shared colonial experiences, finding common threads in lifestyle and food isn’t difficult. That said, until a few years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find flavours you’d enjoyed on vacation when back home, at best trying to scratch the itch by dining at ‘pan-Asian’ restaurants with their too-similar menus and flavour profiles.  Delhi, though, can never be too far behind when it comes to perfecting food from across the world. It’s not just a post-Partition hub for dozens of folks across India, but also an expat magnet that’s carved out neighbourhoods for specific communities. Take Humayunpur, for instance – it’s the hottest place to eat and shop in the city right now, thanks to the communities from north-eastern India, Tibet, and Myanmar residing there. And it’s not just Humayunpur – true-blue Asian restaurants have blossomed across Delhi, and most are almost always full.  The key’s authenticity, after all, and sometimes, you’ve got to ditch the desi-Asian flavours to get it right. Our picks should help you navigate the bustle and find your next favourites, but remember – some of these restaurants may go small on size, but never on flavour. 

For decades, the city’s queer community navigated underground parties and whispered word-of-mouth locations. Today, the capital’s LGBTQIA+ nightlife scene is starting to boom, far beyond the confines of prioritising a safe space or someone’s parents’ house (though those never get old). You’ve got the trailblazing dance floors of Connaught Place. The free-spirited rooftops of Hauz Khas, the sophisticated mixology-forward bars of Greater Kailash, their nearby chilled-out older sibling dive bars, and those two Aurobindo Market icons that feel like they’re caught in an enemies-to-lovers trope. Delhi’s queer nightlife is more diverse than meets the eye at first. This city hosts spectacular high-decibel drag, sultry corners for dates, and spots for a cold beer, and none of them wave a rainbow flag during Pride month just for the sake of publicity. Some do lovely LGBTQ+-specific programming, while others are local haunts where inclusivity to the queer community is woven into the very fabric of their hospitality. Whether in glitter or a T-shirt, run! Crowds fill in faster on certain nights than others.

Delhi in June is an endurance sport. The mercury has already kissed 45 degrees, and there's no relief in sight until the rains decide to show up. Has the city slowed down? Kind of. No major gigs this month, barely any outdoor festivals, and certainly no park-coded events or picnics.  That doesn’t necessarily mean June’s dull. Sure, you’ve got to shift everything back indoors and time it closer to dusk, but I see it as a chance to check out the quieter stuff the city has to offer in a month where loads of folks pack up and leave for Europe or the hills. Art, comedy, underground listening events. And this month, there are plenty of those.  Take the comedy scene: an impressive lineup of comics is descending on Delhi this month: Biswa Kalyan Rath, Manik Mahana, Gursimran Khamba, Raghuram. Also – theatre! So yeah, bust out the sunscreen, slap on your sunglasses, and make your plans. Here are some event picks worth stepping out into the heat for. 

It’s an exceptionally rare day when a film isn’t being screened somewhere in Delhi out of someone’s good will. Tickets to screenings at many of these beloved spots are free or nominal; often, even in the city’s busiest or oddest hours, they draw seriously dedicated viewers and intense conversations. You really don’t have to wait for a classic old film to be digitised online or prove yourself as a buff to be let into some exclusive club. Chances are what you want to watch – and what you didn’t know you wanted to watch – are being screened, like, yesterday, with friendly people at their helm. For years now, we’ve been staying till credits roll in spots and clubs across the capital. This guide rounds up some of the best.

Despite myself, I’ve always loved Delhi. But even I can admit that when the summer inevitably drills into your skin, love can threaten to flush itself out faster than you to a cold shower. Which is enough to tell you: that weekend escape to the hills you’re planning? Everyone else is planning it too, and no, nobody listens to the itinerary recommendation of visiting between October-March instead. Luckily for you, the places on this list aren’t the ones that stick out on your feed like a sore selfie stick. These are the villages where the forest still belongs mostly to animals. Ridge-top hamlets where breakfast comes from the garden orchards, and the night sky’s actually dark enough to see stars. Some of them barely have a phone signal, but hey – you deserve to plug city life on charging mode.

Delhi’s got a little bit of everything when it comes to music – qawwalis, the ever-becoming raga, an emerging underground hip hop scene, vinyl bars, a few really cool karaoke spots. It’s slightly unfortunate then that so many recent conversations about music have strangely become limited to who the next new it-performer’s going to be and which stadium gig recently got sold out.  Let me tell you: there’s a lot more to consuming music in this city beyond fighting for an overpriced ticket on booking platforms that gleefully glitch when you think you’ve finally nabbed one. Some great opportunities to listen to stuff you like and discover new tunes often lurk in WhatsApp forwards, word of mouth, listening club sessions in basements, casual acts on bars’ spare stages, and venues for whom music isn’t even their biggest sell. This guide is a set of entry points into that city. You’ll have to work slightly harder than clicking a genre. You’ll have to watch for announcements, show up somewhere unfamiliar, trust that something worth a shot is about to begin, and even – gasp – be ready to not love every track. The best music has always required a little courage. Delhi asks for no more than that.

Hot. As hell. I know. Counter-point: Delhi rarely offers this many once-in-a-while things in the same thirty-one days. And a good chunk of our offering this May actually ensures you’re indoors or in the shade.  The month’s teeming with things of all kinds: book sales, moving heritage events, a long streak of comedy shows, theatre based on decades of literature reprints, headbangers in the club and classical music, several art exhibits, sports, calligraphy. Ambition, much? Doesn’t stop there. That Ye concert that made headlines (and memes) all over the country for its delay? That’s this month. So is an officially ordained tomato-throwing festival. So, while we obviously understand that urge to screw off to the hills, don’t sweat coming back (other than literally). Here’s what we’ve got.

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

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

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

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

Sidecar has consistently made it to best bars of Asia lists, and there are several reasons why. We’re not gonna stick to those. Instead, bear with the ragged synapses of my brain that have been built up over my several good times here, because there’s much more to this M Block royalty than technical craft. The music I'm not being hyperbolic when I say they play better music than most bars in Delhi. And I know that sounds like a thing one says, but stay with me. Most bars treat music like a texture, something filling the silence. Some places get too precious about it, going full coffee-shop jazz. But at Sidecar, they’re doing something right.  Show up at 5.30, and you're in slow jazz territory. Not dirge-y, more like patient, setting you up. As the evening pulls in, the pace picks up, and you don't notice it happening. By 11, they have raging blues going, but it never overpowers conversation. Usually American blues and jazz from until the 90s… I don't think I've ever heard anything beyond that. They've got this absurdly extensive playlist, so repeat visits don't mean repeat songs.  The cocktails The menu keeps changing (barring some classics), mind you, but it's always done with a (not overdone) concept in mind. I tried rifling through Google to jog my memory about their latest ones, but I think it’s best I left it to the honest bits. There was this Authors menu early on: drinks supposedly favored by Philip Larkin, Tolstoy, Mark Twain, that sort of thing. (The Mark Twain drink

A love letter and a provocation. Daryaganj Gold is propped up to be an elevated offshoot of the city’s well-bitten butter chicken dynasty, dating back to the Partition. Daryaganj the chain mops rotis and hauls up malls across Delhi, and as you settle into your seat at this Aerocity outlet, you could be forgiven for thinking the kitchen’s crossed a line with overly simmering ambition. After all, Daryaganj had first brought the Gold concept to Bangkok. Pretty-to-look-at montages of history on small TV screens, and illustrated trails of the namesake neighbourhood in almost block-print style, are gorgeous decor, but also a potential reinforcement of the feeling.  It was, then, particularly striking to see what I liked the most. Not the staple mains and breads that I’m bound to expect some quality from, but the bits that I imagined I would write off as shingling. Including, believe it or not, the Gold cocktails. The Gold menu special to this outlet is – in the restaurant's own telling – a reimagination. Namely, of 1947 classics colliding with global ingredients and techniques. This framework is for a menu of pleasures and ribbons that spell ‘fusion’, rather than arguments for what’s good. But delicious pleasures are no small matter, especially not when they’re rigorously stirred nearby in huge pots – visible through a large glass window that permits, briefly, the feel of a loud, friendly North Indian kitchen. This menu has, mostly, perfected fusion to the extent that it’s irritati

When’s the last time you shook a tambourine in one hand and poked a spoon into your drink just to desperately scoop a damn good jamun sorbet out? In my defence, you could be next. A faint, circular light in the distance is what first identifies Mido Social House to me, steps away from Kailash Colony’s shockingly underrated food market. By underrated, I mean not crowded – often – sometimes even on weekends. I’m immediately skeptical. For an establishment that self-proclaimably wants to make a shareable, boisterous, almost neighbourly experience out of European dining, the décor doesn’t screech at you in the way a friendly neighbourhood bar with maximalist walls would. Like, say, Nukkad would.  Incidentally, Nukkad was founded by the same person as Mido Social House: Kanishk Tuteja. But no, Mido Social House compellingly sticks to some amount of NCR European restaurant principle. A spiral staircase and a tiny lift, that one theatrical shade of dark, sultry green pouring over both the first floor and terrace seating. Low lamp-forward lighting, crystal ashtrays, temperature-controlled water. Some amount of global posturing on the menu – pan-Asian and kebab picks, for example.  The grins and boisterousness, instead, sneak up on you. Most likely after you’ve downed a few. A DJ, popping out of nowhere late in the night, with bass-heavy hits. Tambourines, of all things, dished out like they’re hot sauce.  Do you dance?  Or do you feel a sense of loyalty to eating the pasta before it

I had a vague idea of Nadoo’s premise when I walked in for dinner: that their philosophy is an open defiance of Delhi's usual fare of South Indian food, one which typically lets dosas, idlis, and uttapams take over all tables and social media feeds – admittedly with the result of good business.  That philosophy is clearly gleaned from the formidably long menu alone, spanning multiple states of the South and some clever twists and homages, like the moniker of ‘Dunken Doughnuts’ for vadai.  But then, you look thoroughly away from the table. (There’s no situation in which you don’t.) The meditatively terracotta brown and caved interiors, a copper-encased fountain and perfectly volumed jazz that ran gentle on the ears, sectioned eating areas and two actual separate bars for their kaapi and cocktail offerings. Does this place deserve even more than being defined as a mere subversion of stereotypes? It takes not a long while to find out. Chef Shri Bala’s inventiveness is everywhere from the several chutneys and rasam offerings that taste like they could constitute entire gravies, the soft crunch of the amusing caviar idli, egg puff and fried-parotta nachos with in-house hummus repurposed from Tamil Nadu's sundal, to dishes like the green chilli chicken, which she tells me is a recipe from the hands of cooks who take leftover ingredients from the houses they work in. It’s a delicious Andhra dish – pachi mirapayakaya – but at Nadoo, it comes with fluffy baos and a slice of coconut th

Competition (if you call it that) for your attention among the hip art galleries in South Delhi, let alone Defence Colony, is stiff as brandy. Method’s always struck my imagination as having a particularly young, cheeky, cool-kid-in-your-classroom character. Their basement space in a non-descript building, patchy network inside, and little but a small name outside to guide you in, truly proves that you’ve already been struck by their latest exhibit’s prospect – which, I guarantee, most of its visitors are, for very good reasons. If you know Method from its Kala Ghoda venue, I’m happy to tell you that there are 0 signs of the Delhi chapter, established five years later, trying to piggyback on the Mumbai one’s reputation. You can tell from the outset (read: their blank walls and minimal staircase to an elevated platform) that their focus is on intentionally positioning their artists’ pieces.  By their own admission, Method is far more interested in positioning the contemporary and the experimental – often by emerging artists or those with niche mediums. And not in the buzzword way. They’re at their second best with their (frequent) solo exhibitions, which really allow you to delve into one creator’s work which often would otherwise be propped up as quick, flashy, and embodied into ‘broader’ themes.  Now here’s why I said that’s their second best offering. The gallery has partnered with one of India’s pioneering online radio communities for alternative music – Boxout.fm – since

Kaagazz_Raat has been running for seven to eight months and is already very sure of what it is… not. A couple of bold strikes: not Bollywood, not EDM, not ‘clubby’. Edition 007 lands this Saturday at Delhi’s Chica. Nida headlines, and by the way, she’s a Mumbai-born DJ quite literally on a tour across India right now. Siiry, who comes in from Hyderabad, is on support. Earthika opens. Given they’re all genre-fluid, you could expect a sick mix of house, acid phonk, techno, disco… all probably melting into each other by the time you’re out (and I don’t mean out of the bar). The timings, if you're the kind of person who plans: Earthika from 10.30pm, Siiry from 11.30pm to 12:30am, and Nida from 12:30am to close.  Kaagazz_Raat also describes itself as the bridge between India's underground and mainstream nightlife. The blue-ink florals and intricate Mughal-adjacent poster design for this edition make it clear someone thought hard about what a club in India after dark could look like without giving way to techno-industrial edge. A few cocktails on offer: filter coffee martini, mango chuski whiskey, gulab imli gin, and tequila chillum limoncello... talk about a promising ode. Speaking of techno energy, though: on the floor, we’ve got a photo booth, a permanent bracelet booth, and a claw machine.  ‘A modern Indian story told in smoke, design, and sound,’ as they put it. Difficult to fact-check… but even more difficult to argue with for a Saturday night out. And well, seven editions in

It began with the cryptic Indian newspaper ads. Then, a casual reel of Bengaluru’s Indiranagar from his account. Finally, some concert uncertainty of the fun, tizzy kind... but now we know, for sure, that British producer-songwriter-feelings machine Fred again.. is doing a debut India tour! He'll play for Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. These are also his first live shows since Italy in September 2025 and his only tour dates this year – and a full catalogue arc is expected. Tickets'll go on sale just as July rolls in on BookMyShow. Who’s Fred again..? Fred again.. (born Frederick Gibson, if you want to be formal about it) is a British producer and songwriter who has spent the better part of the last five years making electronic music that makes people cry AND dance in the club. He started out as a teenager in Brian Eno's orbit, went on to write and produce for Ed Sheeran, BTS, and Stormzy (to name a few) and then, as the creatively restless tend to do, decided the most interesting thing he could make was something of his own. The result was the Actual Life series, three albums built around voice notes, sampled conversations, and fragments of real life stitched into tracks. When: Starts 3pm. December 5 (Delhi NCR), December 9 (Mumbai), December 13 (Bengaluru) Where: Leisure Valley Ground, Delhi NCR; Mahalaxmi Race Course, Mumbai; NICE Grounds, Bengaluru Tickets: For RuPay credit card holders, sale starts July 1. General sale starts on July 5. You can pre-register for these o

For five years straight, the Rainbow Literature Festival has had a spot on December calendars for combining Delhi’s queer indie arts and craft – a force to reckon with – with serious literary programming and discussion around what it means to be part of the LGBTQ+ community. Now, they’ve announced their sixth edition on February 6-7, keeping the weather in mind.  The rest is the drill as we know it: two days of conversations, film screenings, live music, art, a bookstore, a queer haat, food and drink. Writers, artists, activists, performers, filmmakers, and readers, all in the same place. One hundred percent of the time, you’ll end up going for a specific talk or stall and stay for much longer. The whole thing is programmed by Dwijen Dinanath Arts Foundation. And by the way… if you're looking to speak, perform, screen a film, or come on board as a sponsor or partner, the festival is accepting proposals at festivaldirector@rainbowliteraturefestival.com. Kunzum’s on board already as Bookstore Partner while Excurators is handling production. When: February 6-7, 2027 Where: Gulmohar Club, Block C, Gulmohar Park, New Delhi, Delhi 110049 

Over the past month, Lodhi Colony saw two back-to-back massive openings of cafes dedicated almost exclusively to cookies. Given that the neighbourhood is already stuffed to the brim with bakeries and coffee spots, I’ve got to admit I was wondering… why. One’s straight from the streets of Oxford – Ben’s Cookies – and another builds on an already loved homegrown dessert brand – FES’ flagship multi-storeyed outlet. If you look back a few years, Delhi’s relationship with the cookie was polite, I guess. It was an afterthought to a cup of chai or a celebration, stuffed in a Defence Colony bakery container or a steel dabba for unexpected guests. But we seem to have moved past nostalgia when it comes to the cookie. It turns out the luxury of an expertly baked cookie only enhances what everyone already considers a casual treat. The early wave more or less began with molten-centre supreme Dohful, one of very few coffee spots I know where the cookies are just as, if not more, popular than the coffee (for good reason, too). There's also the FES outlets, where a cookie's a pleasant, buttery option nestled safely between artisanal cakes. Take a look at what may well be Delhi’s third wave in cookies. Ben’s Cookies More than eighty-five outlets across the world later, Ben’s Cookies opened in Lodhi to a massive swirl of excitement. I’m talking balloons being released into the sky on a Delhi summer afternoon excitement. Founded in 1984 by a cookery writer and named after her son, cookies and b

Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter from the days of the early Renaissance. His reputation, like many of his counterparts, has gone down and back up hill through history – much like South Delhi, where one of his originals is vacationing right now. After its temporary welcome stay at the city’s Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, Madonna and Child (1490) is now in Humayun's Tomb Museum as part of the exhibition One Mother, Many Mother Tongues. The painting is the first time a Botticelli has ever been shown in India. Last year, the Italian Embassy brought a glorious Caravaggio painting for the first time in India. We sense a standard being maintained as India and Italy continue to strengthen their diplomatic ties, which incidentally themselves outdate Botticelli and the Renaissance, of course. And while there's the caveat of the difficulty of bringing even a singular painting abroad in safety, it brings with it the kind of stark historical focus that Delhi's public museums are best known for in homegrown exhibits. About the painting This particular work belongs to the later phase of Botticelli's career, after the Medici commissions, after some of his best known works, after his part to play in the Sistine Chapel. The painter had, by 1490, turned inward: producing devotional works for private patrons.  His figures are still idealised, though, more to the grain of Rome’s time than, say, Caravaggio’s. But that only makes a more compelling case for why you should see Madonna and

Remember a few weeks ago when Airbnb and YouGov broke down how young urban India is retiring the sacred two-week-long annual family holiday? Well, they’ve caught on to the fact that Gen Z’s mood-driven escapes, when translated (chronically) online, are held up to a slang-heavy vocabulary. And they’ve done the interesting job of holding these amusing phrases against cold numbers – from their own report’s dataset. Surveying over 2,000 young travellers across 11 Indian cities, including ones which happen to have pretty cool Airbnb options like Delhi and Mumbai, the report is titled Never the Same: The New Rules of Gen Z Travel in India. It’s self-explanatorily named, but you can read more about it here. In the meantime, here’re the phrases – and the moods behind them – somewhat now elevated into a marketing study that’s not just ‘Gen Z restless and bougie af’. For aggressively staying still As someone decidedly Gen Z, who considers staring at the ceiling a valid hobby, and is also just about online enough to see these phrases go from negative to stuff of societal pushback, this was interesting to read. Gen Z has entirely decoupled travel from ‘sightseeing’, as we saw in the report. Room rotting: Travelling to a beautiful place specifically to do absolutely nothing with your people. A massive two-thirds of Gen Z travel with the explicit intention of doing zero activities, according to the report, and 80% spend at least half their trip chilling inside their accommodation. Dry trip

Squarely, two things were propped up against both this show’s and my odds on a weekday afternoon. The burgeoning peak of summer heat, and the fact that the exhibit was curated not around theme, but the hands of seven South Asian women artists, explicitly defined that way. (I really do think such curations tend to veer into a performative laundry line of all women on earth being mysterious subjects, who hide away in a somehow globally similar patriarchy.) Well… the second strike’s not quite as true. Pristine Contemporary is Defence Colony’s hardest gallery to spot, squeezed between a meat shop and other small stores on a busy street – and shows are therefore compact, and extremely tightly curated. I already know to expect better. At She, you meet seven immediately distinct styles, subjects that go from bold-eyed to blurry-faced to plumped-up and not human, and the pains and pleasures of womanhood only slowly hover from painting to painting. What immediately stands out after the gallery’s glass door is slid, for one, are the artists’ first names – printed big, bold, black, deigning over their paintings. That’s about it for the narrative bit.  The art and the artists Jahnvi Singh Rohet’s works use the physicality of the cis female body to border on fantasy, imagining what I interpreted as leftover imprints of the male gaze being upturned, in a cat-and-rat chase, and being entirely done away with, all at once. Many moods in what look like similar subjects on the surface. I’m very

Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters have been the invisible header on every other rock fan’s ‘if only’ hitlist in India, likely paired with a constant wonder of is someone getting the best, the best, the best of you from across the world. Well, the wait is now officially over. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers from Seattle are bringing their Take Cover world tour to Indian shores in January – that’s an opportunity to start the year full throttle. They’re playing Bengaluru on January 29, followed by a closing night in Mumbai on January 31. It’s a bitter pill to swallow that Delhi’s once again been snubbed, but at least this long road isn’t to ruin.  We’re got New York powerhouses The Pretty Reckless and the Austin-based punk outfit Die Spitz joining them for the full ride. The support acts are equally curated: look out for Pinkshift and Alain Johannes in Bengaluru, and a local tilt in Mumbai with Goa’s Still In Therapy and singer-songwriter Mali. The band is touring on the back of their 12th studio album, Your Favorite Toy, but let’s be real: we’re all going for the anthems that we’ve never gotten to scream in a crowded arena before. Everlong, The Pretender, Monkey Wrench… I can practically pre-feel the goosebumps. (And perhaps... echoes of nirvana, if you know what I mean.) How to snag a seat Tickets go live tomorrow, June 16, at noon on BookMyShow – prices will go up then. In the meantime, be prepared for the inevitable, absolute bloodbath on the app, and yes, you’ll likely spend t

Vinyl cocktail lounges, DJ takeovers at bars and ticketed cultural events have all been crucial to preserving the heavy frequency of Delhi’s independent tunes. But I’ve found myself wishing there was more to the conversation about ‘reviving’ analogue music culture. Well, today and tomorrow, Gully Labs is teaming up with the crates-and-wax purists at Pagal Records to throw something of celebration – one of reggae music, in all its cobbled, drawling, light-headed glory, over a proper sound system, beating through a coffee-shop-dotted stretch in Panchsheel Park.  For free. No dress code, all day, until 9 at night. Walk in, out and around, nod your head, perhaps strike a conversation with someone, grab a drink or bite, come back – nothing timebound or exclusive. That’s pretty much the idea. They’re calling it, adorably, Little Sounds. Why you should go The line-up’s Qila Sound System (all of their hands on deck), Plantation Sound, and what the organisers call the Special Big Sound Entry – Delhi Sultanate. They're all extremely experienced with curating reggae. While you’re around in Panchsheel, there’s several spots to check out other than Gully Labs: like the very calming Planterie, Beanly for pick-me-ups, and the Barista Training Academy which does rotating menus. All walkable in under a minute.  Wait, what’s reggae? Yes, Bob Marley’s genre, if that’s the name that popped in your head. Born in Jamaica during the late 1960s, it evolved out of older genres like ska and rocksteady

The one and only Guns N' Roses is performing in Bengaluru on November 14, followed by a concert in Guwahati on November 17, as part of the Asia leg of their ongoing world tour.  While they’re no stranger to India, Guwahati's concert marks the first time the band will perform in Northeast India. We love the appetite to conquer every Paradise City – seems so rare these days. At the same time, given this year’s now-infamous line-up of concert cancellations, a little piece of advice: Nothin' lasts forever, and we both know hearts can change. And it's hard to hold a candle, in the cold November rain.  How to get your hands on a ticket  Nightrain Fan Club members got priority access through an exclusive pre-sale window, running from 5pm on June 8 to 10am on June 9. General sale went live today on June 9 at 11am on BookMyShow for both the Bengaluru and Guwahati shows. Who are Guns N’ Roses? One: The reason I got into trouble with a neighbour for blasting music at 3 in the morning as a teenager (well, one of the reasons). Two and more importantly: One of the world’s most famous, provocative bands, formed in 1985, using a mix of punk, blues, and metal to drag American glam rock in the ‘80s away into harsher sounds.  Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan and co were last in India in May 2025 (after more than a decade), when they played a mammoth set in Mumbai. Backed by support act Girish & The Chronicles, the band tore through classics, staying on stage for nearly three hours. We’re spoiled,

A new study by Airbnb and YouGov addresses what everyone’s already suspected. India's Gen Z is done with novel-long itineraries and grand annual plans. Never the Same: The New Rules of Gen Z Travel in India is a survey of 2,012 Gen Z folks across 11 Indian cities, commissioned by Airbnb and released this week. Between an Instagram reel of some influencer speedrunning three cities in four days and a mutual’s three-month-delayed carousel post of a random spot in the hills, it’s easy at first to assume that how we treat travel is a natural extension of the stereotype around us: phone-first and quick to jump at and off things. But the study instead carves out a certain… philosophy that Gen Z’s ended up adopting, wittingly or not.  On why Gen Z travels The study puts forward that Indian Gen Z, the 18-to-29 set, has essentially retired the huge annual two-week-long holiday as a concept. It calls them the Anti-Itinerary Generation, which is almost flattering – I mean, the term sounds much more like counter-culture than the likely reality of a group chat whose energy was spent on deciding dates and a Goa house. But if I’m being honest, the study’s got reason. Strong reason.  Two in three Gen Z travellers said they go on a trip with the explicitly planned intention of doing absolutely nothing. 87% say how they travel reflects who they are as a person, while 92% apparently want their choice of stay to reflect personal taste rather than whatever is currently ranking. And 80% say the sma

Delhi’s fine art has never been limited to air-conditioned galleries. One might even argue that the silence-in-a-white-cube arrangement can’t fully capture the essence of creativity in a city as boisterous as ours – full of alternative studios by young, dedicated patrons, and bold conversations.  For a while now, though, it’s seemed that even the city’s galleries have begun to RSVP to something that goes beyond the touch-me-not. We saw it last November with Kiran Nadar Museum of Art’s ‘please touch gently (zines, comics, ephemera)' exhibition. In fact, we’ve been seeing it for years in the India Art Fair’s massive physical installations outside booths that often function as spots to sit down.  Now, we’re well into Delhi’s blistering heat again. And we’re lifetimes into craving community. This June, opening around the same time, we’ve got two distinct exhibitions that, so far, haven’t exactly been relying on marketing big names or historic art movements. The appeal instead draws into something more instantly sense-tickling: somewhere you can rifle through physical art on paper and play with objects around you, and perhaps make a friend or two… for free.  Paper and Play | Gallery XXL, Defence Colony This show explicitly defines itself as ‘as a response to the seasonal lull of the art calendar’. The ‘conventional exhibition model’ is eschewed, and instead, the Defence Colony gallery chooses the words ‘active’, and perhaps more strikingly, calls it a space to ‘chill’. Curated by