People ask, often, why a fashion house is named for an hour.
Saanjh, in Punjabi, is the word for that brief golden span between day and night. Not sunset — sunset is an event. Saanjh is the quality of the light. It is the way the sky turns to old gold and the air becomes thick with the smell of cooking fires. It is the moment when the light stops belonging to the sun and begins, for a few minutes, to belong to itself.
In our grandmothers' homes, saanjh was when the day's work stopped and the day's rituals began. The lamps were lit. The threshold was swept. A diya was placed in the alcove. The younger women came in from the courtyard. The older ones, who had been resting, sat up.
It is the hour of inheritance. Of stories told. Of jewellery unlocked. Of dupattas pulled from muslin paper and tried on, just for the mirror's sake.
We named the brand for saanjh because we wanted to name it for what our clothes are for — not for an occasion, but for a quality of attention. A Saanjh piece is for the moment you put on your work, sit down at your dressing table, and become — for a few minutes — the woman the day has been preparing you to be.
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It is the most ordinary magic. It is also the only one we believe in.