Simar Malhotra: From US education to creating immersive experiences around India’s art, culture and heritage

(Oct 5, 2026) From live music at Delhi’s heritage sites to heritage walks and food experiences, Simar Malhotra is creating new ways for urban audiences to engage with India’s cultural heritage through Inkpot India’s diverse initiatives.

In the historical ruins of Delhi’s iconic monuments, music and history have been coming together in ways least expected, offering contemporary audiences a fresh way to experience the city. Behind these immersive encounters is Simar Malhotra, founder of Inkpot India, a platform that seeks to bring urban spectators closer to India’s creative and cultural traditions.

Having spent most of her life in Delhi, Simar credits the two years she spent at a boarding school in Jaipur as formative as it was there that she discovered a world beyond academics. “I developed an interest—not for art particularly, but for writing; which led me to become a young author,” she tells The Global Indian.

The road to writing

Her start as a writer was remarkably early. Rupa Publications published her first novel, There is a Tide, when she was just 17. Inspired by the Anna Hazare movement in Delhi, the book explored the idea that young people have the agency to create change.

Gradually, her world began to expand beyond Delhi. Coming from a family rooted in the logistics business in India, Simar moved to the United States to study English at Stanford University and later, earned an MBA from the Columbia Business School.

Yet, even as she pursued her education abroad, Simar knew that she wanted to eventually return to India and contribute to the country’s progress. While the idea then was to write and market more books, it slowly turned into a deep-dive into the landscape of Indian culture. “I felt that urban Indians don’t engage with Indian art and culture as much as they should.”

Coming home and starting Inkpot

While her second novel, Tides Don’t Cross, blending romance with themes of family, identity and Islamophobia, was published in 2018; Simar returned to India in 2019 and began exploring how she could create more spaces for people to engage with India’s creative traditions. The first incarnation of Inkpot was the Inkpot India Conclave that same year, bringing together people from different creative fields, including Shubha Mudgal, Sanjoy Roy and Sharmila Tagore.

“It was a curtain-raiser of sorts to set the stage for things that we could do in and around Indian art and culture,” she says. However, when COVID-19 happened in 2020, the project was paused and Simar shifted her attention to the family’s logistics business.

An evening in Rome

Her work in the business took Simar to Italy last summer. One evening in Rome, she visited the Colosseum, and seeing how a historic space could remain relevant to contemporary audiences sparked an idea: why not bring live music into India’s own monuments?

“And that was my big moment of magic. I realised that this is what I want to do,” she recalls. “I call it the phoenix moment.” She began thinking about how to create something similar in Delhi—putting music, architecture and history in the same frame, rather than experiencing each in isolation. The result was Songs of The Stone, Inkpot’s series of live musical experiences at historic monuments.

When monuments became stages

The first chapter unfolded at the Qutub Minar in December 2025, with sitarist Mehtab Ali Niazi and his ensemble. The series returned to the Qutub complex in March this year with Grammy-winning flautist Rakesh Chaurasia and his ensemble, Rakesh & Friends.

The first two concerts received an overwhelming response, much to Simar’s pleasant surprise, encouraging her to take the idea further. The next chapter moves to Purana Qila on October 10 and 11, with New Zealand-based vocalist Amrita Kaur performing in a two-part Dusk to Dawn programme. The first concert will take place at dusk on October 10, followed by a 7 a.m. performance the next morning.

 

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Simar believes that Delhi’s historic landscape brings out the best of the performing arts and offers plenty of opportunities for one to look beyond the familiar tourist experience.

We are lucky that in numerous corners of Delhi, we can see a ruin or remnants of history. Be it Humayun’s Tomb or Purana Qila, all the monuments here have so many layers of history carrying the legacies of Indraprastha, Mughals, Sher Shah Suri etc.

Simar Malhotra

Beyond the concert

Her work with heritage doesn’t end when the music stops. Through the Heritage Cleanliness Project, Inkpot brings together around 70–80 volunteers every month for community service at a heritage site. The initiative has included clean-up drives at Mehrauli Archaeological Park and Sultan Ghari National Archaeological Park.

“If we’re making use of these heritage spaces for entertainment, we also have to develop in us a sense of stewardship towards them. Moreover, a cleanliness drive is not just about cleaning a space; it is an ongoing process that can change a person from within. If you pick up trash once, you don’t litter again.”

The clean-up is generally followed by a heritage walk led by storytellers and a musical performance. The idea is to experience these places rather than simply pass through them. A concert, a heritage walk, a story or even a meal can offer a different way of encountering a monument and the history around it. For Malhotra, that engagement matters because heritage needs people to value it before they can begin to care for it.

Taking a slice of culture everywhere

For Simar, food offers another way into conversations that can sometimes feel distant or academic. So, Inkpot’s work also moved from monuments to the dining table. One of its newer intellectual properties, The Living Table, explores Indian history and traditions through food.

A plate, a song or an old building can become an entry point into a larger story about India.

Simar Malhotra

Its first edition looked at the evolution of North Indian cuisine, including how dishes such as butter chicken and dal makhani came to represent what the world often understands as Indian food. Another edition turned to India’s lost grains and the changes brought about by the Green Revolution. “It took a look at the diversity we had in our grains before wheat and rice started dominating our diets,” she says.

While Delhi remains at the heart of Inkpot, Simar doesn’t see its work staying within the capital. “We really do want to take it outside. The ambition is to take these formats to other cities and heritage sites, while continuing to develop new properties around India’s cultural landscape. Our country is so rich and diverse. We just need to start realising the value of it,” she concludes.

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