India, Dec. 13 -- Three weeks before the sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale opens its doors to the public, Nikhil Chopra and I hop onto a cross-continental Zoom call. With less than a month to go for the sixth opening of the country's first and largest exhibition of contemporary art, I find Chopra in a surprising state of calm; one that stands in complete opposition to my state of abject panic (and profuse apologies) in the face of a faltering laptop camera.

Chopra-a vision of serene beauty in his salt-and-pepper beard and a white cotton shirt-gives a smile and puts on his round shades. "Well, if I can't see you, I think it would be fun for me to wear dark glasses as well." It is a sentence that besides putting me at immediate ...