“We love visiting Lucknow even in June.”

“June?!! Lucknow is so hot then. Why June?”

“For the lazy noon…ohh the lazy noon of Lucknow, and its vibe. Who cares for the weather outside in that month. In June, we like visiting to stay indoors, bathe using Khus Ittar in a bucket of water, dress up old style in crisp Chikankari cottons and sit indoors all day long. Just catch up with family on inane issues, & ask our parents about long forgotten relatives & friends, they are still in touch with. Flip old albums & show them to the family, or muse within ourselves. Gaze up from these ‘sweet nothing’ chores, and see harsh sunlight from outside, trying to enter through khus sheers, and miserably failing; finally it bobs and dances off the chatai. Taking long naps. Listening to Mohd.Rafi songs. Eating mangoes all day. Reading Hindi magazines…feeling the Dopehri pass by…there is so much ‘sukoon’ (bliss) in all this, that is unique to Lucknow.”

“Oh come on Bhabhi! You can enjoy all this in Australia too. Take all these things with you.”

“Ah no!! Australia has its own charms, but Lucknow’s Dopehri is unbeatable.”

This is a snippet of a conversation, I just had with a sister-in-law of mine, who was visiting us.

It was a Sunday Dopehri. We had been out since 8 am in the morning to the chappai centre to work on 2024 Festive & 2025 Summer designs. Despite leaving our units at 1:30 in the noon, we made it to home by 1:50 pm, to have a lazy, relaxed lunch with visiting extended family & core family. Post lunch, there was still enough time to sit & chit chat lazily, and then wind it up with homemade Paani ke Batashe, and chai.

Even then, we had time left to take a quick shower & a nap, before evening.

Time, quite literally, lazily wafts by in Lucknow, and the core of this is unequivocally, its Dopehri (afternoon). Now this could be the big city, small city thing, but somehow the Dopehri of Lucknow is a mood, it is an emotion.

The collection of Dopehri was designed keeping exactly all these elements in mind.

In Year 2020, we all were under a lockdown. It was at this moment that the team of Meiraas, and the core founders, Brijesh and I, got into a discussion on how to design Everyday Elegant Chikankari.

We reminisced everything we liked about Lucknow, its essence, and what we held very dear in our collection of reveries.

Invariably, all conversations led to its Dopehri. Each memory we held dear, had an element of Lucknow’s lazy afternoons, connected to them.

This is how the name Dopehri was born.

Ironically, actor Pankaj Kapur’s monologue play, of the same name, is also set in the city of Lucknow. So Lucknow & its Dopehri has a charm that has transcended many dimensions of expressionism.

Once the name was decided, we started finalising the garments we would like to feature in Dopehri Collection.

They had to be evocative of that feeling of Lucknow noon.

This is when we decided upon naming them – Roohafza Milk, Kesar Kulfi, Bel Sharbat, Khus Sharbat, Jamuni, Gajari, etc etc. All colloquially Luckhnavi names, that evoke sweet memories of nostalgia, even to those who do not belong to the city, but are fascinated by its aura.

Dopehri is a ‘khusbou’, a pleasant scent of the Summer Gardens of Awadh. The famed summer gardens of Awadh, that had cooling marble baradari to sit in, a cooling fountain that emanated khus fragrance, the khus sheers that were sprinkled with water, along with lightweight, soft cotton clothes with pleasing and light Chikankari bel boota, all of them saying million words, while in complete silence; much like the people of Lucknow, who say a lot in their silence and dignity.

To view Dopehri Collection & shop the recently added pieces, along with classic picks, click here HERE

• Written by Vidhi Rastogi (Co-Founder, Meiraas)