
This year, many of us are trading loud music and crowded rooms for smaller tables and slower evenings. An intimate dinner offers what big parties often can’t - the luxury of presence. The table holds more than food. There are stories folded between plates, a bottle of wine leaning against its own shadow, laughter that tests the candles. Even with hosting, the atmosphere allows us to move without hurry.
The beauty, as always, is in the details. The handwritten note instead of a WhatsApp invite feels like a gift in itself. Small bowls of mogra gajras at each place setting to tuck into hair or wear around the wrist, turn a meal into a memory. A menu that elevates familiar food, candles that drip slowly through the night, music that hums just beneath the conversation - these are touches that linger. Intimate gatherings in this festive season are taking centre stage, and I for one am here for it.
