Photo of Ayush and Yashi by Zahra (@filmizuki)
Welcome to Dilli Billis. Thank you so much for being here, your attention means the world to me. Every fortnight, you can expect a curated set of reading and art recommendations here, scattered within personal musings and observations on the wildly fascinating lives dilli billis lead. Don’t forget to subscribe, that’s a must!
What’s a dilli billi? Let’s get the fundamentals out of the way. I do dearly love cats, but this newsletter isn’t (all) about them. I’ve often thought that people I know in Delhi are like cats. Everyone is kind of related to or has dated everyone else, with steady places to haunt across territories. They dissociate a lot. They all have great claws and look amazing on Instagram feeds. We stalk in and out of each other’s life, purring when we brush shoulders briefly at Auro. It’s also perfectly normal to disappear for weeks in a row, to resurface meowing compliments and terrible hangover stories. This medley of musicians, artists, tattoo pokers, actors, micro-influencers, chefs, liberal arts grads, and NGO consultants are my dilli billis, and it’s a scene picturesque enough to attempt capturing the heady ‘vibes’ of.
I’m a big fan of the Perfectly Imperfect newsletter, which interviews the billis of New York about the things they like, in 5 snippy recommendations. For the first issue of Dilli Billis, I’m putting together a similar list of 5 things I’ve really enjoyed this week.
1. No label mead
This season of life is sponsored by No Label Mead. (Okay no, they didn’t actually pay me to say this) I had my first sip at Fort City, a brewery in Hauz Khas that’s being so cool it doesn’t want anyone to know about it yet. I’m not kidding, they even hate that their chef is really good. We got a carton of mead from Gurgaon the next day, and went to a tattoo party the same week sponsored by No Label. I was very drunk on one bottle, and in denial about it by three. They’ve taken the pissy grossness of beer out, and made it delicious, less gassy, and more dangerous. You think you’re drinking a fizzed-out bottle of Appy Fizz, but before you know it you’re slurring threats at the edgelord defending TERF millionaires and crashing panel discussions on font at Raw Mango for even more free alcohol. Life’s good with mead, I think I’ve found my go-to drink for the season.
2. Smushing art friends together
The world has two kinds of people when it comes to navigating social groups. One kind (a lot of the earth signs I know actually) create neat social containers for all their friends, add tags — drinking company, board games fan, trauma dumps, great weed — and make sure they never intersect. I identify with the other kind, which loves to smush all their friends together, make social potlucks, and delight in cool people you love meeting other cool people that you also love.
It gets even better when you smush together art friends, and they end up doing fabulous collaborations together! There’s nothing better than smirking in joy as the art friends you introduced experience each other and come up with great things which you will smugly take credit for, inside your little lizard brain.
My coolest friends are building a very exciting online community on Discord that basically does this, but at a larger scale. It’s called a Collective of Sorts, and it's a smushing together of dilli billi artists, to facilitate conversations about resources, event spaces, and opportunities in the city. Yay to smushing together of art friends!
3. Deconstructed sushi at Lea Izakaya
Are you a real dilli billi if you haven't eaten at Lea Izakaya in Humayunpur?
Lea has been my go-to place for special dinners with visiting friends, or for any night that feels indie. It's knees-knocked-together-under-the-table tiny and cute. You can try spotting the tiny Ganeshas among the cats in kimonos on the wall, while you wait for the appetizers. The patrons all seem semi-familiar, you probably have Instagram mutuals with them. The regulars have their favourite orders, but there are just enough menu additions once in a while to keep things fresh. The food's reliably great, even for those with ambiguous tastes like me. My palette is quite primitive and tends to gravitate towards familiar and comforting, which means that I never really 'got' sushi or gourmet cuisine. But Lea’s deconstructed sushi is an enduring hit, it made me see what it's all about. My personal favourite is the teriyaki chicken option. The highest tier of dilli billis boasts of drinking a beer with the ultimate billi, Lea's dashing chef Pasang himself. He's also South Delhi's most picky restaurant critic on Instagram, and ubiquitous to the warm glowy Lea experience. Pro-tip, did you know there’s a secret seating space upstairs for big groups? Also, I’d recommend that you order at least one of the juices with a soju shot in it. There’s nothing like getting tipsy in fruit flavour, on these warm summer nights.
Photo of Starboy, a Lea Izakaya regular
4. Animal influencers on Instagram
Instagram being bad for your mental health is old news; I’ve instead made a conscious shift towards following animal influencers over human ones. And oh boy, it’s been so much fun, though endlessly addictive. Maybe there should be a cap on how many cat reels you can watch in a day.
This also brings me to one of my favourite topics to ponder - animal actors. Meryl Streep is cool, but what about horses and raccoons just being their cinematic selves with absolutely no inkling of the stars they are? Someday, I’ll write a whole issue about my teenage obsession Uggie, the celebrity who attended the 2014 Oscars in a 14-carat gold collar. Boyfriend Sid and I also have this running joke whenever we spot an animal extra in a movie or a show, we do a shout-out - great actor acting! There they go!
Coming back to Instagram, my favourite dachshund influencer got to attend Taylor Swift’s Eras tour concert recently, in noise-canceling headphones and a mirrorball outfit. Good for him. If your self-esteem is directly influenced by the number of hot people seen on Instagram that day, nudge the algorithm gently toward animal stars.
5. Malviya Nagar
Anne Helen Petersen has a great essay on living near your friends, and I’m lucky to say that I’ve partly achieved that holy grail of adulthood. I live with my friends and have a decent portion of beloveds residing within a 4km radius. I love being able to walk to friends’ homes as if we all live in a sitcom, especially when it’s in Malviya Nagar.
Our colony feels like the best of both worlds, with each gate leading to a different array of possibilities. Out through the front gate, you witness posh, gentrified South Delhi with tree-lined roads, the iconic Evoo, and twenty overpriced hair salons teeming with blond balayages. Through the back gate, you start the trek towards the endless Malviya Nagar market, with shops selling literally anything you could want. You can get prescription glasses for 800 rupees in 3 hours, imagine. Everywhere’s walkable in pleasant weather, and there’s plenty of chaat to be motivated by. The gol gappas are huge, and you can eat them while watching the really chonky dog addicted to KFC near Haldiram’s. He’s always on the stairs outside looking mournfully at the people eating inside, until someone comes out and gives him a bite. He finds it finger-lickin’ good.
You have to read this.
“One of the pitfalls of same-sex relationships was that you couldn’t break down in public restrooms. Atleast, not in peace. The bitch followed you in there.”
Book:
I’ve just finished reading Big Swiss by Jen Beagin, and it’s so bizarre, funny and gay. There’s also a lot about therapy, trauma, the endless nightmare of running a house, and the choices within dealing with mental illness. Piñon is also one of the best dog characters I’ve encountered in ages.
Articles:
Saying Goodbye to Petunia: As an ardent John Mulaney stan, Petunia was one of my favourite parasocial celebrity pets. This made me cry, and almost believe in animal communicators for a bit. Can they really talk to them?
Two Keiths and the Wrong Piano: Hanif Kureishi’s substack is a delight, especially with these celebrity-memoir-style stories. Same feels as reading Eve Babitz.
How did patriarchy actually begin: I know that we all know this, but it’s still an articulate, neat argument to remember next time you’re debating with an incel or conservative family.
Talking to my daughter about sex and the body changed me as a person: AOI essays are so sweet, thought-provoking and radical. This one really made me think about how communication like this could have saved us from years of shame, confusion and folly.
Do some good:
Mutual Aid India is raising funds to help the families impacted by the Tughlakabad demolitions. Imagine bulldozers wrecking everything you own, and being homeless in this oppressive heat. Make iced coffee at home instead of ordering from Blue Tokai this week, and send that money here instead.
I’ll see you next fortnight, there are thoughts churning already about the next issue. Scientology has a stall at Dilli Haat, I just found out and am horrified. I’m also excited about an upcoming event on fungi and their queerness, along with rish’s experiments on what plants have to say by translating their electric signals.
A big shriek of gratitude to beloved Aishu for helping me out with the artwork, and pushing me to finally write. Another loud shriek for my favourite editor Divya, who graciously lent her overlarge genius head to review this issue. See you all soon, stay hydrated.
AN EXCELLENT READ!!! I am eagerly waiting for the next issue <3