She pointed out to a bar of gold slipped under the seat of a compact commode, normally fitted inside aircrafts.

'We heavily rely on tip offs. Any article can be used as a concealing device for contraband,' she explained.

A doorway away from this gallery are a few samples of seized contraband in the form of animal parts. What appears to be an unusually shaped brownish brick is actually a five-kilogram elephant molar, seized from poachers. Then there's a rhino horn and a well preserved shark jaw.

The most valued treasure which has found home in the Customs and Central Excise museum is the gold-gilded idol of Jambala, which was smuggled into India from Nepal and was seized by customs officials in Gorakhpur.

More recently, a handwritten copy of the Ain-e-Akbari, which was seized by the customs department in Patna two years ago, has also been showcased.

The Blue Building, which has been refortified with steel girders as a security measure, also has other informative galleries focusing on the customs and excise department's tradition and lore.

The heritage gallery explains through handcrafted models, the gradual evolvement and formalisation of customs and excise mores over thousands of years going back to the Indus valley civilization, where at a well appointed dock in Lothal (now in Gujarat), tax was collected from ships coming in to port.

(Mayabhushan Nagvenkar can be contacted at mayabhushan@gmail.com)