Bengaluru hosts plan Diwali potlucks before hometown trips

For three years, Dipti and Ashvini Mundhra have hosted a Diwali gathering before their friends leave Bengaluru for their hometowns. What began as a way to celebrate together has become an annual ritual.

Other young professionals in the city are also organising potlucks, house parties and game nights in the days before Diwali. At *Ghar ki Diwali*, hosted by Vaishnavi Patel’s The Artsy Club, attendees largely came from other cities and met in Bengaluru before travelling home for the festival.

Patel, who moved to Bengaluru two years ago, said she wanted to create a setting where people who could not travel home could celebrate together. Rudra Parikh, who is from Gujarat, said meeting people repeatedly at such gatherings had helped turn new connections into friendships.

The evenings centre on homemade dishes, diyas and fairy lights, with rangoli, mehendi, diya decorating or music adding to the programme. Read more about the traditions Bengaluru residents carry with them in these Diwali rituals.