In the opening image of Shivani Dass’ exhibition titled “Violet Dreams”, the viewer is confronted with a portrait of a girl whose face is masked by a full head of hair as though in a state of trance. The curator Tanvi Mishra remarked, “For someone who isn’t a believer in the existence of the devil or his antics, Dass’ images challenged me to think that there could be an alternate version of reality.”

My old friend Minakshi Dass from Delhi called to invite me to her young 26-year-old daughter’s photography exhibition. I knew I would attend it. This family had gone through too many troubled times. “When did Shivani become so big?” I asked her, adding, “Where did all the years go?” I had seen her as a baby.
“Two years ago I participated in a tryst with Sufidom called ‘Noore Jamaal’,” said Shivani. She belongs to the well-known Delhi Sriram family and grew up in the environment of the cultural institution Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra, which was founded by her great grandmother Sumitra Charat Ram. This upbringing left a profound impression and instilled in her a deep love for the arts.
“Sufism is a way of life, a philosophy that embraces humility,” she clarified. “Sufis are a nomadic people that follow their dreams. They accept any religion,” says Shivani, intrigued by Sufism and its mystical ways. “It’s taught me to self-govern,” she asserted. The only exposure I had so far to Sufism was the exceptional Qawalis sung by them.
She narrated the story of Rumi, a Sufi saint who founded meditation in the form of whirling. Apparently he was standing on one end of a road with his beloved across it. There was a silversmith beating silver and with the rhythm of that noise he started whirling and got lost into a world “where you revive into your new consciousness”.
“Spinning is a way of achieving spirituality. It comes even with dance like Kathak when you spin. Much on the lines of the earth as it spins on its axis.” I tried to focus on the philosophy of this young girl to reach within the depths of what she was saying.
Shivani’s opening image lends an insight into a dark and disturbing world in which dargahs are not only represented as places of worship and learning but those possessed by spirits. “It is a story of my own life, one from a state of being possessed to a state of celebration and then ultimate healing.” I looked at this child yet to embark on the prime years of her life and focused on the striking portraits of her show.
Her closing image is that where an unattended scarf alludes to the devotee who was there to pay respect.
“As you know Queenie aunty,” she said, “we were lost when dad passed away almost three years ago. We all suffered. There had to be a way out, some solace and detachment. I had to break through the stereotypes and go beyond them. Take from the sky and give to the earth (like the order of whirling in Sufism). My mother’s suffering would end if mine did,” she said with several pauses.
Each photograph concentrates on the pause between calm and madness, faith and doubt, suffering and ceremony. “Life is all about exploring and living life, never to be suppressed even by emotion,” she said. “Even pain has grace behind it.”