India, Feb. 22 -- On a recent evening in Connaught Place, I found myself at Saqi Bar-a holdover from the 70s that has survived largely by refusing to change. Inside, Jagjit Singh played softly as middle-aged men nursed their drinks with a bowl of peanut chakna. "How strange that I could feel at ease in a place like this?" I caught myself wondering.

That ease did not come naturally. Delhi taught it to me. Slowly. Reluctantly. Over time.

This is not the Delhi of monuments or curated walking tours you keep being bombarded with ads for, but of small freedoms. The freedom to sit at a bar alone. To take up space without explanation. To feel, even if briefly, safe, as something learned.

I first experienced this version of the city while study...