Lounge Loves: Barrel jeans, ‘The Killer Question’ and more

Sleep in a Bottle

As someone who has struggled with sleep for the better part of my adult life, I’ve sampled my fair share of home remedies. From herbal teas to yoga nidra meditation, I have given a chance to a range of tangible and intangible sleeping aids. Even though some of these experiments have yielded sporadic results, I can’t say any of these fixes have worked with any degree of consistency. Until I discovered Brain Easer, a “polyherbal sleep formulation” made of Vijaya leaf (Cannabis sativa) and other extracts, sold by Cannazo India. Just a few drops of this natural potion, taken under the tongue an hour before bed, acts with remarkable potency. It tastes vile but quietens the chatter in the brain as it lulls you into a deep sleep. Sceptics will dismiss it as placebo, but I can’t thank it enough after a good night’s rest.

— Somak Ghoshal

The Perfect Edit

Back in 2010, SoundCloud was a space where both up-and-coming and established artists would drop experimental remixes and bootleg covers. I hadn’t visited the platform in ages, but vocalist Vali Porter took me right back. Porter is one half of the Los Angeles-based R&B duo Emotional Oranges. Recently, she posted an electronic cover of one of my all-time favourites, Kreayshawn’s 2011 hip-hop track Gucci Gucci. Porter’s vocals and the tempo give it a distinct club-edit feel that makes you experience the track in an entirely new dimension. In another iteration, she mixed Gucci Gucci with Fred Again’s Victory Lap. It’s a clear reminder that some artists can nail your specific taste in the most unexpected ways.

— Ghazal Chengappa

The Answer is Murder

Janice Hallett’s murder mysteries always unfold through “found documents’”—emails, transcripts of recorded conversations, group chats from messaging apps. The Killer Question is no different, and the format works brilliantly for a cosy drama set in a rural English pub that holds a hotly contested weekly pub quiz. Past and present collide as the couple that runs the pub turn out to have a more complicated history than appears at first, and multiple mysteries pile up even as we get an often-hilarious ringside view of the petty rivalries and jealousies between the regular pub quiz teams. There’s a lot going on and you need to pay attention, but the payoff is a super fun puzzlebox of a novel.

— Shrabonti Bagchi

Not Your Usual Jeans

If someone asked me what’s that one piece of clothing I would like to spend my life in, I would say a pair of denim trousers. I have them in most styles: slim, oversized, tapered, wide-legged, torn, embroidered, embellished. My latest addition is a pair of barrel denim pants, a style that creates a curve around the upper thigh like (yes) a barrel and tapers at the ankle, creating a bowlegged silhouette. I generally don’t indulge in trends because, well, what’s the fun in doing what many others are doing, but barrel pants (they have been 2025’s biggest fashion hit) are the perfect in-between skirts and pants. They are casual, slouchy and have a not-trying-so-hard ease. Most importantly, they can elevate whatever you are wearing, be it a short kurta or a cotton shirt—a kind of fun and oomph no black trousers can ever match.

—Pooja Singh