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| shabnam virmani and
tara kini are the main protagonists of this journey. what is common to both shabnam, a film maker and tara, an educator is their passion for music and their search for the sublime. their journey started with an intensive exploration into the poetry and music of kabir, the 15th century indian mystic saint-poet, and subsequently into the music of pandit kumar gandharva, sometimes called “the voice of kabir”. it kept evolving into a celebration of his thriving & vibrant legacy and ideas that continue to inspire and resound in large parts of the country even today – and overseas, in the form of several new-age religions and communities. very early on, their journey led them to encounter dr linda hess, professor of religious studies at stanford, and one of the most respected scholars of kabir. this description fails to portray the witty, humourous and irreverent facets of linda’s personality. arvind lodaya is a designer who’s fed up with design as a one-way road towards more wealth, goods, greed, and less & less inner richness. he’s looking for strategies to subvert uncritical consumption. |
this journey will involve far more internal travel than in the external world. as scholar kapil tiwari says, “if you’re in touch with yourself, you will face no difficulties in accessing kabir. if you approach him as a scholar of words, you will find him dense and impenetrable.”
on one hand, the journeys may involve travelling to varanasi, the city where kabir lived and worked, or to malwa, where the kabir panthis seek to create a new order based on his teachings. on the other, they will involve yoga, meditation and song, song, song - in the attempt to get under kabir’s skin. finally, there will be the journeys with ideas and materials - in particular, the challenge of giving form to nirgun (the formless), and to relate the unrelatable (akath katha). interactions with traditional and contemporary artists and artefacts will crystallise ideas. |
as travellers, our bags are surprisingly empty, because when searching for the meaning of kabir, any baggage is best left behind.
our worldly logic is something kabir has exposed to us as being worthless, and yet we can’t shed it altogether. we will therefore be carrying our disembodied intellect and analytical mindsets along. the most difficult part is to dissolve duality and experience simultaneity. |
abhishek is a furniture design student who will work with smriti on curating and designing an exhibit on kabir’s universe. their approach could be via questions, via metaphors, or via experience - all entryways that lead to the same core. amaranta is a visual communication student who will work on a chapter of a proposed book on kabir, introducing and teasing the reader with kabir’s ulatbansi (upside-down verse). kanyika is a visual communication student who will work on developing an overall theme for a website/CD-ROM on kabir, and develop one section in detail. kunal is a digital film student who will work on creating animation sequences for the proposed set of 3 films on kabir that shabnam & tara are working on. mrinalini is a visual communication student who will work with narayan on designing a print-media based campaign that will inspire people with the power and relevance of kabir’s writings. narayan is a visual communication student who will also work on the print campaign, as well as set up an online wiki that could become a community hub for people around the world to learn, share and express themselves on kabir. patience is a fine art student who will work on making kabir more vividly accessible to school children. shashwati is a design student who will explore how the song is one of the most powerful and accessible means of conveying cultural knowledge. smriti will work on curating and designing an exhibit on kabir with abhishek. |
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