Since 2021, Gurjar, who grew up in Mumbai, has thrown New York Diwali parties that have acquired a certain lore. One year, she led magazine editors in choreographed Bollywood dances; another, a pani puri fountain presided over a party for 140, with handmade naan to match. “I didn’t have a place to celebrate Diwali myself, so I decided to throw these parties,” she says.
Photo: Isa Zapata
Tonight, the sixth annual gathering is quieter, and intentionally so: a dozen chefs, artists, and designers who helped bring the book to life, on the page or in spirit. If the official launch party was for the public, this one is for her people.
Diwali, the South Asian festival of lights, is widely associated with the triumph of good over evil. It is also an occasion to gather, feed one another, and take stock. Gurjar’s chosen family spans disciplines, with an emphasis on the Black, Brown, and AAPI creatives whose work, she believes, makes New York what it is. “I wanted to make sure that every person at the table had a medium through which they expressed their creativity,” she explains.
