Beads and threads are strewn across a table inside a room with a wooden roof on the fifth floor of a building in Fort that is probably as old as our late grandmother's pickle recipes. Inside, five young women are subsumed in crochet work. One of them is 25-year-old Kanchan Rajesh Behera. She steals quick glances at us. Her lips, painted a bright red, curve into a reserved smile every now and then.

A nondescript managalsutra and a thin sliver of sindoor is all she has accessorised her black kurta with, even as she works a large neckpiece dedicatedly, tying it to a frame that will be showcased at an exhibition that begins today.