A sailing ship by the Bombay Castle has sent out an SOS. Its unfurled sails have come off, its ropes need replenishing and its cannons require polishing. Only, we are not seeing a life-size vessel, but a miniature replica on a diorama - a small-scale 3D tableau that captures a scene like a photograph, in great detail - at the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Byculla.

For a month, this diorama of the Bombay Castle - one of the many that the museum has in its fascinating collection - will undergo conservation and restoration, and will therefore, be off the shelf. Last week, we paid a visit to the museum's conservation lab, run by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), to see how the work is coming along.