Dhaka, Feb. 9 -- Cultural Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki revealed on Sunday that Mehdi Hasan Khan, the creator of the widely popular Bengali typing software Avro Keyboard who was initially reluctant to accept the Ekushey Padak individually, has finally agreed to receive the Ekushey Padak - however, as a team with Avro's three other major collaborators.

"We already knew Mehdi Hasan Khan wasn't keen on accepting the award. He had been approached before, but declined," Farooki stated. "Despite being aware of this, we in the cabinet decided to announce the award for him, as it was our way of conveying who we choose to celebrate."

According to Farooki, Mehdi initially remained firm in his stance when approached again this year but finally ag...