Several rooms, several days
The useful question is not whether to bring someone but to which of them. Most people pick one or two: the work party, where colleagues will ask, or the family lunch, where relatives will.
Bookings are priced by the day, with one full day as the minimum, and the day rate applies to every day booked. Two events on the same day are one booking; two events on separate days are two. That arithmetic decides the plan more often than anything else, and you see the full estimate before you confirm.
The story has to survive forty people
At a wedding you are one guest among hundreds. Across Diwali you are introduced over and over, to people who compare notes afterwards, and every retelling is another chance for a detail to drift.
Which is why the plainest introduction wins. A friend who came along is a sentence nobody interrogates. A boyfriend of two years produces questions in one house that contradict the answers given in another, and you are the person holding both. He follows whatever you agreed and never volunteers the arrangement — but the fewer moving parts it has, the easier that is for everyone.
Brief him before the first house
- Whose home each one is, and the names worth knowing in it
- What you have already said about him, word for word
- What stays private — work, money, the last relationship
- Dress, and whether shoes come off at the door
- When you would like to leave, and the signal you will use to say so
The practical bits
Food, drinks, travel and entry are usually the client's, and they are confirmed with you before the booking rather than raised on the night — so the figure you agree already includes them.
Ask early. Replies come within 20 minutes, 9am to 9pm daily, but a fixed week in a busy city leaves less room to match someone who actually suits you. The booking is paid in full at confirmation; seven or more days ahead you can reschedule or cancel for a 50% refund, and inside seven days the fee is kept and the date cannot move.
Frequently asked questions
Can I book the same person for the whole week?
Subject to his availability, yes — and it is charged at the day rate for every day booked. Most people book one or two days rather than the whole festival, and pick the rooms where it actually helps.
What if my family ask whether we are getting married?
They will. He keeps to the introduction you agreed and does not improve on it, and the shortest true answer from you closes the subject faster than any explanation. What he cannot do is imply an engagement — the company is strictly platonic and stays that way.
Will he be out of place at a family Diwali?
Tell us the setting when you ask and we will suggest someone it suits. He is there as your guest, not as an authority on your family — knowing a few names and when to fetch you a drink covers most of it.
Is any of it romantic?
No. It is warm, strictly platonic, non-physical company, with boundaries agreed in writing before you meet. Being introduced as something else in a crowded room does not change what the arrangement is.