On October 1 at the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, textile artist Geeta Khandelwal celebrated her 80th birthday, cheerfully doing a pre-walk-through of her exhibition Classic Miniature Costumes inspired from ceremonial and everyday attires of the Maharajas of India from 1850 to 1950. This has been her passion project for the last three years, wherein she has meticulously recreated miniature garments of ceremonial and everyday attires of Indian maharajas—from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. Traditionally, while holding courts, the maharajas had enjoyed dressing up in all their finery, displaying their status and prosperity.

Khandelwal, who has been working in the field of textile art for over 50 years says that "these recreations are based on references drawn from Ahmedabad's Calico Museum's publication Indian Costumes in the Collection of the Calico Museum of Textiles. The book includes detailed patterns which give measurements and show individual sections of the garments they wore, the types of fabrics used, the colours, the details of embroidery, pipings, buttons and ties, sleeves and collars—all well documented and illustrated. The images were about 4 inches and I have blown them into miniatures of about 7 to 10 inches. The project was never meant for an exhibition but when the director of Bhau Daji Lad Museum saw the work, she thought it was important to display it to educate the next generation on the how these garments can be made."