Sixty-one year old Brindaban learnt his art from his mother and his father, the late Jogendranath Chanda and in turn has taught both his son and his daughter. He remembers his parents making lac dolls as well as conch shell bangles for the local Adivasis.
With the pathetic state of the market for lac dolls, which has practically shut down for the last 15 or 20 years, his children have shown no interest in maintaining the continuity of this art. His son has moved on to the conch shell trade.
In the face of changing tastes, competition from plastic dolls and the absence of any marketing assistance or aid of any sort, the 17 or 18 families in the area who were once active in lac doll making shut down shop many years ago.
Brindaban would probably have met a similar fate, had not his talent been spotted by Mrs Ruby Pal Chowdhury of Crafts Council of West Bengal. CCWB showcased his work in Kolkata in an attempt to revive this extinct art. Thanks to the exposure he received, Brindaban began to be invited to participate in workshops and visit other cities like Delhi, Chandigarh and Bhopal.
Brindaban finds that there is a spark of interest in these dolls
at fairs organised in cities like Kolkata - probably as decorative items. To keep alive Kolkata`s new found interest in these lac products, for the past seven years or so, Brindaban has also been fashioning lockets from terracotta and giving them a lac painted finish.
It has been about nine years now that Brindaban has also been working at the Heritage School, Kolkata training students in the art of lac doll making. While this gives him a steady income and puts him in a much better position than his fellow artisans in his village, it also limits the time that he can devote to his art and therefore, his output.