Legendary Bengal weaver presents PM Modi with special saree

New Delhi, Nov 13: A legendary Bengal waveband Padma Bhushan awardee Biren Kumar Basak presented a special saree to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The saree has a painting of the PM addressing the people of the country.

Touched with this gesture, PM Modi took to Twitter and wrote, Shri Biren Kumar Basak belongs to Nadia in

West Bengal. He is a reputed weaver, who depicts different aspects of Indian history and culture in his Sarees. During the interaction with the Padma Awardees, he presented something to me which I greatly cherish.

Basak whose turnout is around Rs 25 crore used to in the 1970s go door to door selling sarees in Kolkata. He has not forgotten his past when he started out his journey with Re 1. He now has 5,000 weavers working for him of which 2,000 are women.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Sourav Ganguly, Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar are some of his special clients. Satyajit Ray and Hemanta Mukhopadhyay were also his clients.