vadodara after gaining entry into the limca book of records for his amazing collection of 150 turbans that also includes the largest turban in the world vadodaras turban man a p chavla may soon find a place in the guinness book of world records the guinness book authorities have recently asked chavla to furnish details of his collection and proof of his claim of having the largest collection of turbans chavla a reader with the m s universitys faculty of performing arts teaches mime and helps the department of dramatics in costume designing he has undertaken years of extensive research on the innumerable types of headgears worn in the olden days by the kings as well as the laymen his collection includes turbans worn by 115 different castes across the country i received the certificate from the limca book of records for my collection of turbans in january it gives a special mention to the largest turban i had last year a green one that measured eight feet in diameter and weighed six kgs but now i have made an even larger one that is 10 feet in diameter and weighs 10 kgs he says however for chavla the passion for making turbans and collecting them did not stem from a wish to gain an entry into books of records i am happy about this achievement but when i first started making this collection it was an outcome of my interest in the study of headgears and i enjoyed reading about them i recreated turbans based on old photographs of kings of different regions being a teacher in the performing arts costume designing was something that i was interested in says chavla later i started making huge turbans for the idols of lord ganesh for use during the ganesh festival the diameter of these turbans was between eight and 10 feet one day i just felt that i should write to the limca book of records and within 15 days i got a reply from them asking me to give more details he says for chavla making turbans is a passion for me the paagh paaghdi and the saafa are more than just headgears they are a part of tradition and culture of ancient india and each paagh or paaghdi has a history behind it he says i had presented a paper on paaghdi bolti hai paaghdis speak wherein details of each of the different types of headgears that were used in ancient india are mentioned in ancient india people would wear different types of paagh and paaghdi according to their caste and profession even women used to wear turbans in some societies chavla has taken a year of sabbatical leave from the msu for further research and study about turbans and during his innumerable visits to remote villages in gujarat and rajasthan he has come across a variety of new types of turbans a permanent exhibition of my paagh paaghdi and saafa is also set up recently