Like a finely woven carpet, ‘The Last Knot’ by Shabir Ahmad Mir is a story of intricate patterns and hidden depths. Set in 19th-century Srinagar, this novel weaves together myth, fable, and the yearning for freedom, inviting readers to unravel its mysteries and explore the soul of Kashmir.

Countries, regions, cities, they can’t be stereotyped. They are a mosaic, a mosaic of all that has passed since the beginning of time. Multi-layered and multi-dimensional, they seem to have no beginning and no end. The Last Knot by Shabir Ahmad Mir is one such story.

Layered with myths, fables, legacies, fates, secrets, love and betrayal, this book is about a dream, a dream to fly over the mountains, a dream to break the shackles of cruel forces. Set against the backdrop of 19th-century Srinagar, the book meanders through the life of a runaway weaver who lives in an authoritarian kingdom, where the state owns and controls everything.

The narrative opens with a view of the beautiful Dal Lake, the blue peaceful waters, the rhythmic waves, moving back and forth, uninterrupted and willingly crossing each other without any undue force. The unnamed young weaver dreams of a magic carpet that will fly, fly over the immovable mountains that encircle this region. So, begins the lyrical, turbulent journey of this weaver, who breaks away from his ‘wusteh’ (master teacher) and finds his way to a shrine to meet another weaver, a thumbless weaver.

He calls upon the saints to help him, and the thumbless weaver introduces him to the magic carpet of Solomon. The magic didn’t lie in the weave, it lay in the power of the person sitting on it, the boon granted by the gods giving him the ability to fly. The magic lay in the blue yarn, the blue colour that was evasive like the sky, the clouds, the water and the invisible spirit.

The young weaver adopts the guise of a madman to achieve his goal. He does make the blue carpet, the carpet that falls down the mountain and eventually leads to the end of his dream. In between, he learns about dyeing, meets a youthful Heemal who he falls in love with, betrays his advisor, and finds himself imprisoned in a cave.

His journey, the path to freedom, wanders through many despairing alleys where there is no freedom of expression, where oppression and free labour is the norm and where women can’t succeed, as in the case of Heemal. In this world, heirs live with secret formulas, success is in the hands of the powerful.

Mir’s world is rooted in Kashmir, a beautiful state, burdened by being sandwiched between the aspirations of Pakistan and native India. A writer from Gudoora, a village in South Kashmir’s Pulwana District, he authored The Plague Upon Us (shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature in 2021). His writings reflect the turmoil of the state, where freedom from the shackles of varied ideologies is a dream.

Mir’s description is lyrical; his story is interspersed with fables that people in his native state of Kashmir have heard. The state that’s often referred to as paradise, is replete with tales of Sufi saints, blessings bestowed by Nature and the Jhelum River dancing its way from heaven to Earth, fruit orchards and arts that flourish there. Handwoven silk carpets from Kashmir have always been coveted possessions.

His phrases turn the tides of time, ‘memories of the future’, ‘Dreams of the dark depths of despair. The despair of the dark depths of dreams. The depth of dark despair of dreams…’ The interplay of words evokes the inner turmoil, the knots that overthinking creates and the hopelessness at being unable to find a method to undo the knots. The last knot seals the weaver’s fate.

The story will stay with you for a long time because you need to process and decipher it in your head. Maybe, you’ll read it again, this time with more attention, trying to peel the layers and getting into the weaver’s skin, feeling his plight and hearing his cry for freedom. The cry that gets lost in the caves, knotted with grief and inability to cut the cords of pain.

The book’s beautiful cover and the author’s intricate web of existential ideas, such as the weaver’s search for meaning and struggle against fate, conveyed through stream of consciousness, result in a ruminative narrative.

Book Details
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Hardbound: 192 pages
Price: INR 599
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