About

Shabnam Virmani & Vipul Rikhi

Shabnam Virmani is a filmmaker, singer and artiste in residence at Srishti. In 2003 she started the Kabir Project – a journey of travelling with folk singers in Malwa, Rajasthan and also in Pakistan in a quest for the spiritual and socio-political resonances of the 15th century mystic poet Kabir in our contemporary world. Shabnam took up playing the five-stringed tambura and now sings a wide repertoire of folk songs of Kabir and other mystic poets.

Vipul Rikhi is a poet, fiction writer, translator and singer. His work with Kabir Project includes extensive writings and translations in the field of Bhakti, Sufi and Baul poetry, including two books forthcoming next year. In the course of these journeys he has developed a deep love for singing mystic poetry in the folk music traditions. In his satsangs and performances, he likes to bring equal emphasis to poetry and its resonances in our lives and to the sheer beauty and simplicity of folk tunes. He is also the author of a novel and collections of poetry and short stories. In 2010-11, he was a fellow for literature at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany.

Gopal Singh Chouhan is a Bikaner-based cultural activist who works with folk musicians, heritage conservation and several other cultural projects under the aegis of the NGO – Lokayan. In 2012, he organized the highly successful Rajasthan Kabir Yatra. Apart from all this, Gopal is also a superb player of manjira, a traditional Indian percussion instrument.