India's state-owned institutes have literally been forced to embrace technologies to go digital - however reluctantly. Till the museum reopen, the magic mantra has been "online", "cyber", "virtual" - a transition that has been less smooth for most art institutions than one might have hoped. The first of a four-part series, Kishore Singh turns the gaze to some of India's leading art institutions to see how they are keeping the show going.

Kishore Singh draws up a list of terms he never wants to hear or read again.

All rumours regarding the premature death of the art market have proven to be just that -- rumours -- with a healthy appetite for masters pushing prices up. Kishore Singh reports.

My son, lolling in front of the television, says, 'You have had yourself a Sunday break, Dad, won't you cook us something nice for dinner?'

You're a captive audience to friends who want you to share the agony of their aches and pains, their spouse's experiments in the kitchen gone wrong, or partners' peccadillos, sighs Kishore Singh.

'Our stomachs, accustomed now only to the blandness of stems and leaves, rumbled at unaccustomed aromas not intended for our consumption.' 'Heaven awaited on a platter -- but not for us,' sighs Kishore Singh.

'Hope your weekend is less strenuous than ours,' says Kishore Singh.

'Barriers have come across roads marking the end of Noida, the start of Gurgaon, the hard borders allowing no passage -- at least by day,' observes Kishore Singh.

Normally, cutting off conversation has its benefits, but not all the time, observes Kishore Singh

'We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the season -- and all that crap,' mutters Kishore Singh as he draws up a will :)).

Kishore Singh want to have chai pe charcha with Modiji...

HR sends an email saying I absented myself from a Zoom conference and the boss is pissed. I take the clothes out of the washing machine, sighs Kishore Singh.

'Every day I am being made to work on menial things like 'Get me a glass of water', 'Put away your plate'...' 'This is not part of my job description as master of the house,' says Kishore Singh.

'I need a haircut, but who can I trust with a pair of scissors?', asks Kishore Singh.

'It has caused our cook no little mirth that the sahib next door -- who heads a factory with several hundred, or thousand, workers -- can be spotted doing jharoo-pocha,' observes Kishore Singh.

'No germ, virus or bacteria worth its nasty trait was allowed across the threshold,' observes Kishore Singh.

We're an educated family, I said, let's not act like the mindless hordes who spread misinformation over WhatsApp, says Kishore Singh.

Nemaida's misfortune in life was to be known as Satyajit Ray's 'Boswell'; History will remember Satish Gujral as a renaissance man whose imprint over New Delhi is huge.

'It all became clear when I was asked to lodge myself on the couch in the lounge,' says Kishore Singh.

This is the largest single-owner sale of Indian modern art, but it is for reasons other than this historicity that it will be remembered, says Kishore Singh.