How is the new museology of museums rooted within communities different from museums displaying communities? What can this new museology learn from previous engagements by museum actors with source communities and multiple stakeholders? Using ‘Otherness’, ‘difference’ and ‘communities’ as analytical frames, this conversation between a museologist (Poornima Sardana) and an anthropologist (Shivangi Pareek) aims to bring together perspectives at the intersection of museum studies and ethnographic work, and reflect on plural entanglements within museums.