Bipin began at the loom at the age of nine, sitting between his grandfather's knees, learning to read the warp like a page. He is now sixty-one. Forty-two of those years have been spent in the same pit-loom shed his grandfather built, in the same village, weaving the same fish-and-flower bandha his family has woven for two hundred years.
He has trained eleven apprentices. Three are his sons. Eight are not.
"I do not sell cloth. I send forward what my grandfather taught me."
First sits at his grandfather's loom in Barpali at age nine. Learns to count threads.
Weaves his first complete saree alone at twenty. The motif is the family's fish-and-flower bandha.
Receives the State Award for handloom craft. Begins training apprentices in the village shed.
His youngest son, Saroj, joins the loom. The fourth generation begins.
