New Delhi, Dec. 5 -- Farhina Ahmed, 23, looks forward to October each year, when she meets Julia, her friend from Spain. They first met in 2022, striking up a conversation by the pool of their Jaipur hotel. "She is 30-years older than me, with a daughter my age, and runs a clothing brand and visits India for work every year. We just got talking and had a wonderful conversation about our interests," says Ahmed, an independent researcher from Assam. They went shopping and sightseeing, meeting again by chance in October 2023, when they were both in Jaipur at the same hotel. Since then, they have bookmarked their annual autumn meet-up.

"We meet by the pool and chat about what has happened with us in the past year," she says. "We have this no...