Shabnam Virmani is a national award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, and artist. She is the founder of the Kabir Project, which was initiated in 2002 as a response to the Gujarat riots that propelled her on a quest for understanding. Over the past two decades, she has delved into the philosophy of mystic poets like Kabir and Shah Latif through a deep engagement with their oral folk traditions.
Her deep inspiration in this poetry has taken the shape of four documentary films on Kabir, a digital archive named Ajab Shahar, authored books, the organization of urban festivals and rural yantras, singing and performing herself and instilling students with an appreciation for mystic poetry. Her film “Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein” (In the Market Stands Kabir) received the Special Jury Prize at the National Film Awards in 2011.
Shabnam Virmani’s literary endeavors encompass two books: “I Saw Myself: Journeys with Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai” (Penguin, 2019) and “Burn Down Your House: Provocations from Kabir” (Upcoming, Speaking Tiger). The Kabir Project, housed at Srishti in Bangalore, earned the Sadbhavana Award in 2016 for contributing to interfaith understanding. This recognition was bestowed by Shri Morari Bapu and the Vishwagram Trust in Gujarat in 2016.
Early on, as a young reporter, Shabnam made a significant impact by breaking the story of Roop Kanwar’s sati in Rajasthan. Her landmark report sparked a powerful women’s movement.
Shabnam has studied journalism at the Times Research Foundation in Delhi and communication at Cornell University.
Key themes emerging out of our conversation:
- Burning down your house.
- Reclaiming satsang and its radicality.
- To pass on inspiration, first, you need to be inspired.
- Attachment comes with the idea that this is mine, which is a delusion.
- Learn how peace-building and resolving conflict propelled her to take on different roles.
- Imposter syndrome is a sign of your integrity. You don't have to have all the answers.
- Discover how poetry and music that nourished her lured her to come on stage as a singer.
- To dance with death, to appreciate that things are not real and are continually changing. In order to receive something, we must surrender to it. Letting go of the idea of yourself.
- Being able to appreciate that sorrow is a gift, actually, and brings you closer to what is real.
- A sense of ambiguity can be the only breeding ground for compassion. It's not a loser's response to say, I don't know.
- The need to feminize the workplace. Vulnerability is liberating, not easy, It takes a lot of guts to be vulnerable.
- Allowing experience to slap you in the face, transform you, turn your world upside down, drench you.
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