Salt Lake’s resident son-in-law is the youngest-ever director of Indian Museum, the oldest in the nation. It has been a month since Sayan Bhattacharya, married to Sharmistha Chatterjee of Karunamoyee G Block, has taken charge at the 212-year-old institution.

Sayan, who divides his time between his paternal home in Maniktala and his wife’s Salt Lake apartment ever since his father-in-law Shiv Shankar Chatterjee expired during the pandemic, had joined Indian Museum 15 years ago as the officer-on-special duty, education. “The museum’s bicentennial celebrations were scheduled for 2014. I was brought in to prepare for that,” recalls the 46-year-old.

Last year, from being the curator, education, he was promoted to the post of deputy director.

But the last leap needed him to compete in an open call. “People had applied from everywhere. I was the only internal candidate,” he said about the interview before the board of trustees with the governor as chairman. His selection had to be ratified by the ministry of culture, after which he was handed charge in January.

“So long, I could propose. Now I approve,” Sayan says about the change in his role. “Earlier, I had to deal only with promotional and education aspects. Now even the building maintenance is my responsibility.”

Sayan’s top priority now is the re-curation of the museum’s nine galleries, a project announced by the Prime Minister himself in 2022 on the occasion of the 75th year of India’s independence. “The display patterns are old school. We will continue to show six per cent of our collection, rotating the items on display,” he said. The recuration will focus on modernising displays, enhancing interactivity and strengthening storylines.

“We are doing a project with IIT Kharagpur on using artificial intelligence to restore artifacts,” he pointed out.

Other projects on his table are a bid to air-condition the galleries, improving fire-fighting arrangements and raising a dog squad for the Central Industrial Security Force, which guards the building. “That would help in case of bomb threats,” he said.

He also plans to collaborate both at the regional and the international levels. “There are good collections even in rural homes.”

Sayan’s Indian Museum link has helped his local puja. Karunamoyee G Block has had the governor inaugurate its Durga puja three years ago and consuls general of many a nation have dropped by over the last couple of pujas at his request. “The governor described me as a man of ideas in a speech in Kerala, where I was on a tour with him,” said Sayan. Seated in the top seat now, it is now time for him to turn his ideas into action.