SUHANI SHAH

ENSORCELLMENT : Find it. Show it. MAGIC !!

Authors: MANASVEE SANKPAL, VISHAKHA SATA AND KAVYA MEHTA

MENTOR — ANINDITA MAJI

BRIGHT DAY SCHOOL, CBSE, VASNA

“No dream was too big to try, We believed we could fly!

The moon chased our cars,

And we enjoyed counting stars.”

Said Suhani Shah, recalling her blithe childhood, and the first mo- ment that led to her becoming what she is today. Born in Udaipur 1990, Suhani was an inquisitive child and had always been in- trigued by magic. When she saw a magic show on TV, she was ex- tremely fascinated by it. She went straight to her father, and ex- pressed her desire to do magic. Although he initially denied her, he conceded after looking at his daughter’s persistence and her seriousness towards the matter.

Stepping for stage shows, pursuing career in magic, family support came in easy. The tricky part was HOW. Who could teach a 6 year old magic? “Being a magician wasn’t a profession, it was looked down upon. My young age didn’t help either” says Suhani in a podcast with Hustler’s bay. This was when her father set out searching for a crew that assisted some magician in past and found one. He had a hard time convincing them, but eventually they were in accord. “They were more like a family, they were my mentors. Usually magician would guide the assistants and assign them their tasks, but it was completely polar in my case.” She put forth.

After 8 months of planning and relentless rehearsals the day of her first magic show arrived. It was graced with the presence of Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, who loved the performance. At a tender age of 7 nobody has ideas for success and career. But this mentalist had her name penned in Guinness Book of World Records at that age. Suhani strived to perfect her magic skills eve- ry day. Due to travelling across various cities for her shows, she couldn’t attend school after class 2. When asked regarding her schooling, Suhani says, “Actually I wouldn’t even call me home schooled. I am unschooled. Now that I go to various schools and colleges to deliver lectures I see students looking up to me, wanting to be like me, and so I don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything”. She believes that experiences have taught her more than a school ever could. Being an excellent hypnotherapist and illusionist, she has been asked to deliver speeches and TED talks over the years. When asked about her take on magic, she says that “Real magic doesn’t happen on stage, it happens in the minds of the audience, and a magician has the ability to influence the audience into a sense of false free will, while really holding on to the pup- pet strings.”

The backstage chaos, learning dialogues, set, scenes, props and crew gave her a newly found bliss. “We travelled to various cities and states for these shows. In fact, I was having these shows 8-9 months every year.” She said. And as of 2019, she has staged more than 5000 shows exploring corners of magic that defied imagination. Amidst the pandemic covid-19, Live shows, the only thing that kept her going, halted. Suhani says, “This was the first time in 23 years that I didn’t organize any event for 9 month span. From when I could analyze aspects, I was already into doing magic shows and now that they suddenly stopped, I started having an identity crisis.” This was when social media came into the picture. She started live streaming on YouTube, which comprised simple magic tricks. To her utter surprise, the response of audience was overwhelming. “The only reason I started live streaming and making content online was to maintain my san- ity.” she quotes.

“The power of thoughts is tremendous. Believe in something, it will work for you.” Suhani says. She won several awards and has been conferred the title of ‘Jadoopari’ by the All India Magic Association.. In contemporary world where stress, clinical depression, drugs and alcohol haunt peoples’ lives, channelizing her work for good she has established Suhani Mind care, a clinic in Goa that provides therapies to nourish the mind. The clinic has many relaxation rooms, treatment of psychological disorders, and more. She even works with individuals to rid them of these addictions “We work on the human psyche” she adds.

Perhaps it’s just the need to rediscover the hint of magic within us. “One small diya can lighten the darkest of rooms. It tells us that you might have to burn a little in order to light the world!” says Suhani. That is what we need to rear a correspondence with our passion. She believes success is an on-going journey. We may encounter obstacles but must never lose our inner child for the moon is still chasing our cars and sky is still waiting for us to count stars!