nagpur there used to be a time when circular frames cutters needles and colourful threads would be in the list of essentials for every household as at least one woman of the family used to do hand embroidery kashidakari the art of hand embroidery is unfortunately dying a slow death yavatmals rajni shirke is not only keeping this art alive for herself but is also training hundreds of young girls and that too for more than three decades many of them have made their livelihood through this art on november 28 shirke received the prestigious national award certificate given on behalf of the textile ministry of government of india textile minister piyush goyal felicitated her with a certificate memento gold medal and a cash prize at vigyan bhavan on her way back to yavatmal from new delhi she spoke exclusively to toi about her journey full of achievements my mother used to do embroidery at home she had mastered this art recalled rajni who was born and brought up in bhopal though her mother was good at kashidakari she never allowed rajni to take up this art as a profession as higher education was a priority in our family i did my msc in mathematics kashidakari went on sidebyside i got some valuable lessons from vv sawant a master of this art she said after getting married to dr avinash shirke who is the principal of a social work college in yavatmal she decided to devote her entire time to art she has held independent exhibitions at the famous jahangir art gallery she also represented maharashtra at the national craft mela and later represented india at the milan expo in italy and dubai expo in abu dhabi following her husbands suggestion she chose to bring her knowledge and expertise of this craft to rural areas with a target of developing a craft belt in the backward and tribal area of vidarbha i decided to train women and girls in this art we also got associated with several selfhelp groups she said rajni has taught this art to at least 100 girls and women some of them are now earning their livelihood but she is yet to find a person who is capable of carrying forward this art with passion her daughter rubali is learning textile designing at the national institute of fashion technology nift and hopes to continue the legacy its difficult for the young generation to carry forward this art because they lack patience the first and foremost thing needed for kashidakari they spend hours watching tv and mobile phones but cant concentrate on stitching even for a few minutes she lamented art with social responsibility maharashtras three handicraft artisans rajni shirke amar bajirao satpute and abhay brahmdeo pandit were felicitated with national awards 2017 2018 and 2019 shirke got the national award for hast kashidakari under the woman artisan category for the year 2019 earlier she won state awards from madhya pradesh where she was