A farshi is a long voluminous garment that generously falls to the ground, and when standing or walking has a long train. The word farshi comes from ‘farsh’ or the ground/floor, which the garment trails on. This particular garment was carried from Panipat to Lahore and eventually to Sahiwal a few months after Partition.

The katha stitch is a type of embroidery style which developed predominantly in eastern regions of Undivided Bengal. The word kantha means quilt and nakshi means embroidery or design. So nakshi kantha was essentially a simple and thin quilt, made by stacking layers of old sarees and/ or dhotis together.

It is an incredible thing for an inanimate object like a dupatta to reveal so much about a family’s history. To become the fountainhead of memory, that leads to the unearthing of so many long-forgotten tales. Part of bhabhji’s trousseau from 91 years ago, it is still used today.

My aunt, Neelam, tells me that this silk banarasi saree had been a gift to my grandmother, Chandrika Devi, from my grandfather’s side and she wore it at her bidai, when she left her father’s home for her husband’s. It is a Gulabi pink colour and has been woven in the finest banarasi weaving technique – Kadhua or Kadwa, which means kadha hua or embroidered

Amongst these items was a white cotton mulmul odhni, a large scarf like a dupatta, entirely hand embroidered with chikankari by her grandmother, who was from Lucknow, and presented to her on her wedding day on 29 June 1954. I cannot recall ever being enamored by anything as much as that odhni.