An exchange of food is often ordinary enough to overlook: A regional speciality tucked into one’s luggage, a homemade snack carried on a train, a parcel sent to a loved one living elsewhere, a festive box delivered to a colleague, or a dabba returned with something new inside. Yet, such exchanges reveal how we care for one another, and whose memories, efforts, and expectations travel with the food.
The gift of food is integral to any celebration, encompassing numerous festivals and communities across geographies. While some foods are made at home, others are bought from shops and producers that have stood the test of time; some are seasonal, while others carry religious or cultural significance; yet others are simply a way of conveying, “I thought of you.”
Over time, traditions around gifting food have undergone a shift. For instance, today, homemade sweets sit alongside artisanal products and branded hampers. Thus, what ends up as a gift is often influenced by convenience, packaging, trends, and sustainability.
Through October and November we want to understand the immaterial life that material gifts hold. It is an invitation to look closely at the food we choose to share and how this shifts across traditions and time.
Join the conversation to know more about:
Our theme is spread across two months—October and November 2026—moving from choosing a gift to understanding what it carries. Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect:
October: Choosing the Gift
Exploring what we can grow, make, buy, carry, share, or pass on; and how we can thoughtfully pick a gift for another.
November: What the Gift Carries
Following gifted foods backward to their respective sources, and forward into their afterlives: Noticing what travels with the gifted food, and what happens once it changes hands.
Know more about the questions we’re asking in the next two months, and the many narratives we’re attempting to foreground:
This excerpt from Ishita Dey’s book Sweet Excess, part of the chapter ‘Navigating Work’, explores the embodied knowledge—measured touch and trained eyes—that informs how a piece of mishti is made in Krishnanagar, West Bengal, and how it is largely determined by caste and class realities.
Khorshed Deboo writes about a kitchen in a fire temple in Mumbai doling out humble yet delightful Parsi sweets that find a place in religious ceremonies and at tea-time alike.
As Christmas arrives, Abdul sahab’s rum-and-plum cakes are sought after by all of Lucknow. Now the third-generation owner of Bengal Bakery, his traditional baking and tahzīb perfectly embody the syncretism of the city. Sonakshi Srivastava finds out more.
Attempting to bridge the growing gaps between producers and consumers of coffee, Grounds For Change addresses matters of traceability, fairness, and taste. Yashvi Shah offers a glimpse into the daily realities of coffee growers, M. Kethegowda and M. Sannarangegowda, who were central to the project’s vision.
For Bhavika Bhatia, the melody of the Bollywood song ‘Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaun’ from the 1990s that her partner shared with her translated into layers of mango, chocolate, cherries, and silver sugar stars. “You can bake affection into flour, fold memory into whipped cream, and press longing into the glaze of a cherry,” she fondly shares.
Was the adrak halwa truly created for an ailing Nawab? Determined to find the origins of the halwa, food researcher Dr. Tarana Husain Khan looks for clues in Rampur’s libraries, kitchens, and at a local halwa festival.
It is in the peak of winter that the sap of the date palm trees is the sweetest. Sharing their own memories of eating nolen gur in winter, the co-founders of Earth Story Farms talk to Throvnica Chandrasekar about making date palm jaggery, and its skilled makers.
In Marie Rosario’s kitchen, coloured cake has been an evergreen staple for decades. She, along with her daughter, Charmaine Behl, and her granddaughters, Riya and Nikita Behl, shares her memories of baking and eating this cake together on important days. Both Riya and Nikita remember how they marvelled at the perfectly distinct patterns of colour once the cake was baked, and how it tastes just as flavourful even today.
Meet and make friends over preparing a sweet or savoury condiment, a snack, or other food associated with gifting, and share its recipe or story.
Market visits to find or buy something worth giving and, in the process, discover regional foods and local vendors.
City-wide conversations on WhatsApp that engage with diverse gifting practices and traditions in local contexts.
Discussion and Reading Circles held online with members and experts from the field, blending conversation and learning.
Archiving a Collection of Foods: This could be a recipe collection featuring sweets, savoury snacks, pickles, preserves, spice blends, podis, baked goods, drinks, or celebration-specific preparations.
Other Activities and Prompts including a gift show-and-tell, tracing a gift’s life cycle, recipe documentation workshops, and online community cooking sessions.
By the end of these two months, we hope you leave with a deeper understanding of the life behind everyday sharing and gifting of food.
Sign up for the Local Food Club to be part of this dialogue.
Want to help us behind the scenes? Here are all the ways you can get involved.