Bangalore: What can buffalo milk have to do with whether or not your kurta runs colour?

Plenty, according Kalamkari artiste Bhaskar from Srikalahasti in Andhra Pradesh. For, the high content of fat makes buffalo milk a fantastic binding agent. How effectively the artiste uses it in the dyeing and printing process can decide whether or your bright kurta begins to look like dish rag after one wash.

One of the seven master craftsmen who taught at the national workshop on Traditional Silk Printing Techniques of India, Mr. Bhaskar explains the meticulous process involving several natural ingredients that go into Kalamkari work.

And if you think youngsters would not want to have anything to do with this painstaking craft, Mr. Bhaskar will tell you how more than 300 young participants from all over India took part enthusiastically in the workshop organised by the Central Silk Technological Research Institute (CSTRI). "I was surprised," Sajaouddin Yaqubji Khatri from Dhar in Madhya Pradesh, a master in a form of block-printing called Bagh, smiles in agreement.

"It was heartening," said CSTRI Director Somashekhar T.H. at the valedictory function, that so many young people participated in the workshop with enthusiasm.

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