The Dhakai Jamdanis we wore were always fragile. They tore easily after a couple of wears and no one knew why. After my Qissaa journey began I met savants and I learnt that the sarees made are a mix of silk and cotton, the sturdier cotton cut the silk yarn.  However the ones from Bangladesh are all cotton. The costs differ according to the number of colours used. For the hand woven ones the reverse looked almost as good as the front. The embroidered “bootis” had a beginning and end and the threads were not passed across and cut.

This stunner in indigo has many colours and is a copy of a museum piece, made in Bangladesh, commissioned by Papri.

Credit @sadaf @papribasak

I always knew that “Kantha” the Bengal art of quilting was layers of cloth embellished with motifs in a running stitch. Filled, just running with some variations. I also knew that the Bangladeshi “Nakshi Kantha” had sixteen types with variations.

I had gone to Santiniketan to contact a Kantha artisan with a friend. While going into a shop I noticed a small shop called Sadaf. I sauntered in and beauty assailed my senses. It was brimming with Indigo, Nakshi Kantha, and Bangladeshi Dhakai Jamdanis. These mostly I got from there.  My journey began, a little wiser and thence began my frequent trips to Santiniketan.

Credit @sadaf @papribasak

I have to talk about Papri. I met this spunky young girl teaching at the Art School in Santiniketan, her talent languishing. I was excited and we planned and plotted and she made some lovely sarees for me. She got me super stuff from across the border. This has to be an apology post. I was new to the business. I was not aware of the system of tagging and hashtags. Inadvertently I took all the credit which actually belonged to her.