16/08/2026
Matching ছিটের জামা
When we were children, a common practice was to wear our elder cousin’s outgrown clothes. They saw us through the rest of the year.
But Pujo was different.
Pujo meant “matching jama”.
The economically bestowed families would buy matching dresses or salwar-kameez sets from New Market/ Sriram Arcade or Treasure Island, to name a few.
The middle class had our own version: longer lengths of ছিটের কাপড় — yardage bought from fabric shops across New Market and Gariahat. (Geeta’s Circle and Bishnupriya were A listers).
Same fabric. Same design. Same tailor (who never delivered on time). But what they often did was to save fabric and make a small shirt for the little brother in the family! Like Phoochkar Phhau.
“Mahalaya r agey pabo toh!” was used as profusely as my toddler uses my patience.
We now belong to an age when most people want to look “distinct” (if not different). Do I see Matching Chheeter Jama on sisters as often - the answer is “No”.
And that is why this campaign came to me - as a little celebration of those old pre-Pujo days, brought into our very different lives of today.
Where we don’t match our clothes with our sisters all the time - due to geographical distance, choices. But then, sisterhood especially between our own sisters was beyond matching chhheeter jama!
Through this series we want to celebrate the mundaneness of shared living.
It’s the domestic, the most intimate, the little, unglamorous things sisters grow up around.
Clothes being ironed. Keds shoes being whitened with a liquid polish, sarees (and mosharis) being folded.
One helping the other, borrowing things, fighting. Knowing exactly where everything is kept. Including memories.
Sisters.
They may not be always wearing matching jaama - but they are almost always wearing each other’s colours.
Lokkhi Saraswati starring Ritwika Miśra শ্রীজিতা
Photos by Aagnik Ghosh
Make up and hair: Prithaj Das | Makeup Artist and team
Production and concept: Parama Calcutta
