The Sufi and the "Cactus"

Hanif and his "cactus" rope. Photo: Linda Cortright If someone had told me thirty years ago that I would find myself in the Thar Desert, mesmerized by a barefoot man in a turban spinning a cactus into rope, I would have politely told them they were crazy. And if they had added that the man was a Sufi, I would have nodded politely and walked away. The world of wild fibers originally unfolded for me in a pasture full of cashmere goats. The fact that they produced a luxury fiber was secondary to...