Perhaps there is no landscape more evocative of viraha – the pain of separation from one’s Beloved – than the desert. Sasui has set off across the harsh desert of Thar in search of her beloved Punhoon. The sand dunes, sun, wind, sky, earth, rocks and mountains are her only companions in her tough walk from desolation to self-discovery and freedom.

Sasui was a Brahmin girl abandoned at birth by her parents and raised in Bhambhor by a childless Muslim couple. When she grew up, she and prince Punhoon of Ketch, Baluchistan fell in love with each other and planned to get married. Punhoon’s father – King Ari Jaam – was incensed at the ‘ill-matched’ wedding, and plotted to bring back his son. Punhoon is abducted by his brothers on the wedding night and carried away on camels across the desert to Kutch. Next morning, Sasui, determined as steel, sets off alone into this desolate land, without any provisions, in the pursuit of her retreating beloved, eventually perishing in the hot sands.

Sasui knows that the path to her Beloved, her truth, her own true self, cannot be without strife and suffering, just as herders know that no journey can be without pain. Her walk resonates with the walk of the nomads. For them, Sasui represents their commitment to always keep moving and braving all odds.