Zorba & The Qashqai

“You’re young, you can be patient; I can’t. As I get older I become wilder. Why do people keep telling me that old age tames a person, makes him lose his zest? I don’t quit. I want to eat up the whole world.”

This is one of the million things that Zorba the Greek said in 1952 that are exactly how I think and feel.

On a globe if were to put in tiny pins each one would extend infinitely into it’s own direction that is separate from the rest. So also with human ideologies that we live by. There must be infinite life models that humans have been adopted by different people all over the world across the ages.

So when someone’s model, displayed in a book in 1952, is similar to my own in 2026 it is a marvel isn’t it? That any two should be alike at all is a marvel. But separated by time and space, to connect with Zorba is the greatest delight of 2026.

There are lives lived strictly within the guardrails. Obeying all the rules and traditions. And some find a way to live not so strictly – but a little wildly within those rails.

Ever since this rug has come to be with me, I have been in awe of the weaver’s wild soul. When I got it in 2004, I had not been introduced to Zorba. But clearly, she too is one with the same ideology of the wild and the free.

The guardrails are there. But within the blue field she has played wildly. Any animal. Anywhere. Anyhow. No symmetry. No direction. No rules.

Some find this freedom chaotic, daunting and scary. And they love and protect their guardrails.

Others, revere their personal freedoms, and believe that it must be protected fiercely. These people, like this weaving, are few.

Another example of the “free” that comes to mind is “Srikantha” written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. And the wolf of Fantastic Mr. Fox by Raold Dahl.

And we, are fortunate to be a part of that section of humanity that can choose which side of the line we want to stand on.

To each his own.

In my view though, beauty such as seen in this rug is unparalleled and matchless only because the weaver had all the freedom to craft her masterpiece with.

***

jaina mishra

July 2026

wovensouls.com