Festive Fables at the Lukshmi Vilas Palace

Radhikaraje Gaekwad of baroda hosts a special diwali soirée to kick off the festive season, inviting women of Gujarat’s Erstwhile royal families to her home, the lukshmi villas palace, to showcase the rich heritage of a regal era, for Hello!

When Maharani Radhikaraje throws the gates of her world renowned palace open for seasonal revelry, she does so with the finesse of a Maharani, the humility of a girl-next-door and the generosity of a woman who is all heart. Ushering in Royal Fables, an exhibition of art, craft and textiles by women of royal families of India, Radhikaraje leaves no detail overlooked, evoking royal festivities with elan!

Within the precincts of the Lukshmi Villas Palace, spread across 720 acres, she’s the woman in-charge. In Baroda, she’s the one carrying on the legacy of her dignified, progressive ancestors such as Maharani Chimnabai II and Maharani Indira Raje of Cooch Behar (Princess of Baroda and Maharani Gayatri Devi’s mother). However, in the company of her sister, sisters-in-law, daughters as well as cousins and friends who have arrived at the palace at her invitation, for some time, Radhika inadvertently unburdens herself of the responsibilities at hand, synchronising with their full-throated laughter and genuine joie-de-vivre. In the background, however, arrangements follow with clockwork precision,as she disappears and reappears in a flash, to give personal attention to everyone present. Chat with the beautiful ladies, and one senses an endeavour to uphold and maintain tradition, both those of their marital homes and their maiden ones. They bask in the nourishment of their full-bodied cultural upbringing, their consciousness draped with the whole nine yards of old world histories, aesthetics, ethics and ceremony.