As I congratulate India’s fourth-highest civilian award, the Padma Shri winner, for his exceptional contribution towards bringing global fame to the traditional art of Jamdani and Tangail sarees, a humble voice replies, ‘Thank you’. The 70-year-old weaver, Biren Kumar Basak, from West Bengal’s Phulia village is soft-spoken, and just like the Jamdani prints he weaves, he is humble and occasionally explodes with vibrancy.
He has designed sarees for several well-known personalities — from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to the legendary director Satyajit Ray.
His skills and precision have bagged him several accolades including the Certificate of Merit (Ministry of Textiles, 2009), Sant Kabir Award (2013), Guinness Book of World Records for longest saree (2018), among others.
However, he never anticipated winning the Padma Shri. “I was speechless. I never fathomed such an honour would be given to a Bengali weaver like me and the numerous weavers associated with it,” Basak…