By the time the Jaipur Literature Festival reaches its midpoint, most attendees have already navigated the crowds, queued for sessions, and felt the particular exhaustion that comes from too many brilliant people saying too many great things in too little time. A little break from the too-muchness was the Johri × Juggernaut dinner.
On January 18th, The Johri hosted its annual festival dinner in partnership with Juggernaut Books, with Soho House joining as a collaborator for the 2026 edition. Sixty-five guests gathered at the boutique hotel’s restored 18th-century haveli in Johri Bazaar, a venue that has steadily become part of the Jaipur Literature Festival’s social calendar. The evening was designed as an extension of the festival, bringing together writers, publishers, and cultural figures in an informal setting.
Guests moved to the rooftop for a cocktail hour, where drinks curated by The Johri Bar set the tone. The gathering later shifted to the dining room for dinner. Chef Sonu Kumar Singh’s menu focused on seasonal ingredients and regional flavours, while décor by Daksha Salam complemented the haveli’s original character. The movement from rooftop to table created a natural structure for the evening and allowed conversations to continue more closely over the meal.
The Guest List
Among those present were Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum, former Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, Man Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan, Jung Chang, Tash Aw, and festival co-director William Dalrymple. The seating brought together novelists, historians, publishers, and journalists to encourage exchange across disciplines.
The Jaipur Literature Festival has, over two decades, grown into a major annual meeting point for writers, translators, publishers, and readers, where formal sessions are only part of the exchange and much of the real conversation happens in the margins of the programme. Within that framework, the Johri × Juggernaut dinner functions as a smaller extension of the festival rather than a separate event, offering a setting where ideas introduced on stage can continue in a more personal register.
Set away from the main venues but closely tied to the JLF community, the evening provides space for longer dialogue among guests who have spent the day moving between panels and crowds. In that sense, the dinner reflects what the festival has always encouraged: sustained, cross-disciplinary conversation that carries on beyond the scheduled timetable.
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