Small, intimate gatherings offer new opportunities to explore, experiment

Last month, at his first Mumbai concert, Rachit Gaur aka The Mooner was mortified to find he would go on after jazz-rock-blues-fusion act Kush Upadhyay Trio, of which Gino Banks, one of the country’s most celebrated jazz musicians, is a member. It meant Banks would virtually open for the little-known folk singer-songwriter.

“When he first reached out to us, [Gaur] had 29 incredible songs and 58 followers. I could name dozens of artists with millions of followers and not one truly original song released,” says Arul Kacker, leader of the Mumbai chapter of Sofar Sounds, a London-born global music company that turns regular spaces into live concert venues. The show was held in a living room in downtown Churchgate, and the talent lineup, as at all Sofar Sounds gigs, was not revealed beforehand. So it’s safe to assume that both Gaur and the audience left that day reeling from their good surprises. 

To attend a Sofar performance, you have to apply (sofarsounds.com), and get chosen at the discretion of the organisers, who try to maintain diversity and give more people a chance to experience it. Entry is free but attendees are invited to contribute.

It is this alchemy of opportunity, discovery, experimentation and subversion of the status quo that small, nimble social events such as Sofar Sounds’ engender. Unencumbered by the stresses of permanent venues and having to appeal to the widest possible audience, these events fit like a glove with a millennial-driven zeitgeist that places a premium on unique experiences, conscious consumption and inclusivity.

Plates from the Danda Food Project

The Danda Food Project, a home-dining start-up, was physicist-turned-cheese consultant Aditya Raghavan and jewellery designer-turned-chef Anandita Kamani’s attempt to create a space in which to expand their own culinary knowledge. Their inaugural nine-course pork dinner at their residence in Mumbai’s Khar, for instance, married the taste and techniques of oft-overlooked pork-consuming cultures around India with modern nose-to-tail dining, which utilises the entire carcass and celebrates offcuts and offal meat just as much as prime cuts. And, in a more recent collaboration with sustainable seafood experts, In Season Fish, they put the spotlight on seasonal fish varieties like the Indian halibut and thin-spine sea catfish that rarely make it to restaurant menus. Guests for the dinners, which are ticketed at Rs 3,000, are usually picked on a first-come, first-serve basis through applications via their website (dandafoodproject.in).

“With one-off pop-up experiences, diners come in with an open mind, excited to try something new and different. This sort of gives us a blank canvas to be as creative or as experimental as we like,” says Raghavan. Kamani adds, “This also makes for an easy space to collaborate — we have had several friends and small businesses bring in their ideas.”

The collaborative support that this genre of socialising affords the independent entrepreneur, who relies on slow, incremental exposure for growth, is invaluable. For wellness entrepreneur Neysa Mendes, photographer Prarthna Singh and PR executive Bhavana Singh, friends and co-founders of culture-based community potluck Neighbourhood in Mumbai, this ecosystem is the very foundation of their growing popularity.

A typical Neighbourhood event is free and features a gathering of no more than 25 diners in a unique and usually topical cultural space. Each of the guests (invited from whomever gets in touch with them at emailneighbourhood@gmail.com and blocks a seat first) is only required to contribute a pre-discussed home-cooked item, which they will then share at a communal table as they engage with the venue and its context.

A table set for Neighbourhood, a culture-based community potluck in Mumbai

The last potluck, in April, was held at the closing of artist and illustrator Sam Kulavoor’s show, “A Man of the Crowd”, at Tarq gallery in Mumbai’s Colaba, where Kulavoor arrived early to draw on guests’ table mats. Previous editions have included a tapas potluck in a mill setting during the Focus photography festival, and an Italian-themed potluck at artist Lekha Washington’s studio. “We’ve had the most generous partners,” says Bhavana Singh. “When we see a venue that we like, we just ask the owner and they always share their space with us.”

At a Sofar Sounds show that they hosted in their Mumbai home, craft beer entrepreneur Rahul Mehra and his wife, Sakshi Saigal, used the small captive audience to sample the new premium craft gin, Strangers & Sons, that they will launch this month in Mumbai and Goa. Mehra is also the co-founder of Gin Motley, a fledgling gin club he hosts with businessman Pankaj Lath and fine-spirits importer Keshav Prakash at their homes.

But perhaps the greatest triumph of this social format is that it enables you to reach beyond your familiar circles to be enriched by people and perspectives you may never otherwise encounter. Bring Your Own Book (BYOB) calls itself “a book club with a twist” because there is no pre-decided book over which members congregate; everyone is welcome to discuss a book of their choice and encouraged to exchange their books for anything that caught their attention.

In just three years since it was founded in Delhi, this free, volunteer-driven club, which pops up in whatever place is amenable to its members, be it parks and private terraces or cafés (where everyone is billed individually), has already sprouted chapters in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Surat, with dedicated members of all ages and backgrounds. “We have school and college students, professionals, the elderly—mostly people who like to read, but also those who don’t read and want to pick up the habit, or those looking to meet new people or just to do something different on a Sunday,” says Jayanti Jha, who runs BYOB’s Mumbai chapter. “The most special thing that has happened is that people have become friends who spend time beyond the book club.”

Danda Food Project’s 12-seater setup has the same effect, says Raghavan. “It allows people to have great conversations with like-minded strangers, which is severely lacking in Mumbai’s food scene where people tend to stick with groups of friends when going out.”

At a time when it is easy to conflate a social life with a social media life, where connectivity often simulates connection, and trying new things is only as rewarding as the touchscreen validation it brings, this might be the antidote we’ve been looking for.