Reenu Mathew's Blog: Reenued, page 2

Be creative in expressing how special your oldest & dearest friend is to you on her 40th birthday!

Your dearest friend is turning 40. She has everything that she wished for in material terms; and she is not at all materialistic.
What could be the perfect birthday gift for her?

I racked my brains for over a month for something meaningful that she would not forget in a long long time (she is such a forgetful person; you see).

A little about our history so that you can imagine my dilemma -
Fact: We have been friends for well over 30 years ever since we came to live in the same apartment building.
Fact: We went to the same school, college right from under-grad to post-grad.
Fact: She married another one of my friends from the same building and thus continued to live in the same building
Fact: She has very specific tastes that differ dramatically from my own

I chanced to read on social media that "If you have been friends with someone since childhood and you have fond memories with them ever since, then you are one lucky person". That gave me an idea of all of our common friends (actually almost 95% of them are common considering the above facts) telling her on her special day how lucky we were to have a friend like her.

But how?

Now since I still have the remnants of my erstwhile IT-life, I can't think beyond presentations and Microsoft I guess. Hmmmmm!
So, we did a presentation on "A trip through memory lane of being Priya". 

We collected some of the choicest pictures from four decades and cataloged them by year so that we could all see how she has grown through these. It was a difficult task - getting pictures from everybody, cataloging them chronologically but it was sooooo worth it. We were very naughty too - we paraphrased most of the photos with anecdotes that we remembered.

Guess what? She was overwhelmed. Not only about this but because we used Google Hangout so that our common friends from all over the world could wish her while she was cutting the birthday cake.

If you have some special people in your life, do remember to thank them and overwhelm them with gestures like these and you can create more special memories to remember in the future.
Just an idea!

Renew and spring-charge your wardrobe with leftover fabric like I did

Earlier when I would get my clothes tailored, I would always request my tailor to give me the material left over. However, I have always been disappointed to hear that 'no material was left over'. Now that I sew the dresses, I am fascinated to find that if the cut is right, you are left over with quite a bit of fabric.  Also, I am so forgetful that I have 'burnt' quite a bit of dresses too while ironing. I can't wear them but why should I waste the entire fabric?
I put such fabric that I have collected to good use by reusing such leftover fabric.
This is a kurti I made with leftover material from another kurti. I found matching patches to attach on the sides so as to increase the length & breadth of the kurti.
Now, I also had this crepe material from a shawl that I accidentally burnt during ironing. I made rose flowers & stitched them to give the neck, slits & bottom of the kurti a different kind of look.
I am sure you can revamp your closet to give your dresses that 'new look'. So, what are you waiting for? Spring is in the air; do that spring cleaning of your closet & bring that spring & zing to your wardrobe without burning a hole in your pocket. 
If you need more ideas on what to do with such excess fabric... you know like making making different accessories to complement your wardrobe, then you will love this website -http://www.allfreesewing.com/
It has inspired me to save up every spare bit of cloth and make beautiful little things that don't even take that much of your time.

Honesty is still the best policy or so the driver at UBER showed us today

Since my Dad is in town for just a week, it was a mad clamber to meet family and friends who he had not in several years.
Today was one such day when he was meeting one of his friends who is 80+ and due to the heat, he asked me to book him a cab. On his way back, his friend who was travelling with him left his phone in the Uber cab. He realized it only after about half hour of reaching his home. He called Dad to ask him if Dad had seen his phone. We called his number and the cab driver Ganesh picked it up. He was already on another ride but he promised to drop the phone personally at Dad' friend' place.

Ever the skeptics, we told him to return the phone to whoever was closer to him at his earliest. He said that he would be coming closer to our place and told us to not worry about the phone. Within an hour, we got a call from Dad' friend saying that Ganesh had come by personally to return the phone to him.

Dad' friend was worried more about the loss of the contacts on his phone. Where he had lost hope, Ganesh' act of honesty and going out of his way to return the phone was simply overwhelming.
Not just for him, for us too. Because it is far from what we hear normally about cab drivers like - how rude they are or how they overprice or how they harm the customer.

Thank you Ganesh for showing us how cab drivers can also be!

Easter selfies!

I was never a selfie-kinda girl. In fact, I hate posing for pictures; I'd rather play photographer. This Easter, I let my hair down... Probably because there is nothing like celebrating the biggest day of a Christian with your family.
My parents are with me this Easter weekend and after the mass, we posed for selfies & pictures. This sparked a selfie-sharing frenzy on my various Whatsapp groups. Then came the pictures of different family activities or just chilling-out poses.

That made me try out my latest kurti which is actually made from the material for another kurti' salwar (bottom). I have so many cream salwars / churidhars / leggings that making another one seemed to be such a waste. Also, I collect the left over materials from my other creations in the hope of using it sometime in the future; that proved to be a boon.
I had to create multiple panels and sew them together but the result was worth it - simple yet elegant. Best of all, it made me stand tall. It was like I was implementing the message of Easter - 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'; I converted my earlier rejects into something that I love wearing.

Now that is reason enough to give in to the 'posing and clicking and then posting on social media' frenzy. Here is the Mathews wishing you a verrry happppppy Easter!

Sewing a kurti with special significance this Good Friday!

Jesus died for our sins without question or argument; we commemorate that great sacrifice on Good Friday. 
I sewed a kurti with each color having a specific significance - black to protest the death of an innocent Jesus in a manner most cruel), yellow to proclaim Jesus as the light for removing darkness & evil, and other colors to show Jesus' sacrifice as a victory of good over evil. Light handmade and machine embroidery dotted the bottom and sleeves. I wore this to church. A song was on my lips as I went to attend the Good Friday service -
God gave his life for me, O what love I feel,Jesus, the innocent lamb was slain.
All those protests leave my lips,For such cruelties,T'wards the Lord Immanuel.

Jesus, that light you are,That which removes the dark,You have conquered the evil in me.

There I do the dance,To those trumpets blast,You led goodness to victory!
Thank you Jesus for saving me; you are the light of my world!

Bala, you are an inspiration to me; I support you for NATA Idol 2016!

She has seen loss like no other from early childhood; she had talked about it on some rare occasions because she simply hated pity. I was a terrified & helpless witness when she lost her 8-year old daughter; I had never seen her so broken, so frail. She said that she had lost part of her heart and soul that ill-fated day. What I admired about her afterwards was the way she decided to look at loss in the eye and say ‘I am not going to bow down to you’.
True survivor she is and thus an inspiration to me. She taught me by example how -To realize your potential no matter what the oddsTo constant renew yourself and shake off negativity from your life
She is multi-talented, she sings like an angel, bakes like your own Mom, sews with the expertise of a surgeon. Her job as a Testing Manager did not allow her to realize her true potential in these areas. Now that is on a sabbatical, she is geared up to renew herself in all these areas.                                                                                                                                                                        Starting with NATA (North American Telegu Association) Idol 2016; check out her angelic singing in this demo video - https://youtu.be/KhUh7ONiPv4
I salute you dear Bala and I avow my admiration for your fighting spirit; you are truly an inspiration to me. Since my blog is all about renewal, it is befitting to support you in all these endeavors.
Cheers to my dear friend!!! 

Not without my KEEPEr!

The lights shined bright one second, dimmed the next and then pffttt. Cable, internet and all the hooked up electrical appliances in my apartment had stopped working. There had been a surge in electricity and we could see some smoke billowing around the electricity board downstairs. The time was 7:47 a.m.The residents in this wing about 6 in number called the handymen from the Power company, Cable company, Internet Service Provider, general electric store. By 11 a.m., all 6 residents had been attended to by these handymen working non-stop just in time for the maids to come and start their work in our apartments. We also did not have to pay through our nose to get everything working in 3 hours.This is possible in Mumbai where in every area, you can find people to do all sorts of odd-jobs. I was used to all this before I started for U.S. in 2003; which was almost every person’ dream back then.I was staying with another Indian girl, also from Mumbai and we found it a little difficult to setup everything because we were used to everything being handled by these handymen who are part and parcel of every middle-class to the super-rich Mumbaikar’ life. We learnt the hard way and it was not really something that was worthwhile but you haaaddd to do it and so we did.Here in Mumbai, you want to repair some part of your house, or paint or repair an item or the bad plumbing or maybe do the household work, even take the trash out; there is always someone available to do everything that you don’t want to do. I remember in U.S. when one of our friends bought a new house, all of us went to help out with the moving and painting of her house. My Dad and grandfather had been aghast to hear that I was doing the painting and moving stuff; they had kept their forever-little girl away from all this till then.When I was staying in the UK, we had to hunt for people who would do things within our budget and getting things done within few hours was simply out of question unless you did it yourself.
So, last year when my brother decided to start KEEPE which connects the handymen and the property owners or managers, I was ecstatic. Here was the guy who truly understood how a person can make better use of their time while delegating to the expert handymen and not burning a hole in your pocket.He has his head and heart in the right place as is evident in his talk with Elliot Volkman the award-winning journalist who is deeply ingrained in the startup world. KEEPE was one of the semi-finalists at CELEBRATE Conference in October 2015 for crowning the Startup of the Year.  http://tech.co/startup-year-competition-finalists-keepe-2015-09
Now, KEEPE is one of the startups to get a chance to hone their solution under the mentoring of Techstars Seattle accelerator so as to pitch to prominent investors in May 2016.http://www.geekwire.com/2016/here-are-the-9-startups-in-the-techstars-seattle-2016-class/  Kudos to Rishi Mathew (CEO) of KEEPE! I am sure every person in northern US who is used to expert handymen taking away all that work from your naïve and ignorant hands while allowing you to make better use of your time… like me for example, thanks you from the bottom of our hearts. I wish that it was available way back in 2003.

Gift that chic, slim, and girly look to your newbie Mom friend!

Newbie Moms are so temperamental. They are worried about so many things about their baby like -  Is my baby feeding right? Why is my baby crying? Am I holding my baby right?, and then about themselves - Am I a good mother? When will I lose weight? Why do all my dresses make me look fat? When will I lose this tummy? I feel like eating all the time, should I stop? When do I exercise; I hardly have time to sleep? The list is endless. If you have spent time with newbie Moms then probably you would have had this experience. The thing that really gets to you is that no matter what you say, she is not satisfied with your answer and holds out for that ever-elusive all-encompassing accurate answer.
I think it is best to avoid answers to her physical attractiveness. I mean if you say “No dear, you have lost weight”, she may promptly reply “What rubbish, I was so thin just about two years ago!” Or if you give tips to lose the tummy she will glare and say how easy it was two years ago to eat right, exercise and show off a flat tummy. Obviously! two years ago, she was also not a mother of this baby. But this can be said only at your own peril.
However, no matter how irrational she is being now, she is still your friend and you want to try and make her feel better about herself. I decided to make her look chic, slim and girly.
For the material, I took this silk sari that had been gifted but never worn and did not look like it would be worn anytime soon.For the color, I chose purple… the color of royal robes. I want her to feel like a queen.For the pattern, I worked on main areas – 1. Make her look slimmer which means distributing body weight so that she stands tall and thus sport a slim silhouette, 2. Cover the butt even while walking, 3. Make her shapely so the cut would have to be such that all her apprehensive areas should not be evident. I kept the kurta long to make her stand tall with the slit about 4 inches below the butt to cover it gracefully and the cut was shapely without highlighting any of the problem areas.To get the ‘girly’ bit in, I chose to make the sleeves frilly just like most of the dresses worn by her baby daughter… that should have her feeling like she was ‘two years ago’, right?
Now, cutting a dress from a sari may seem easy but believe me that you have to be precise with the measurements of the adjustments that need to be done to convert the sari into the kurta. Tips: If you have tons of saris gifted to you over the years but you hardly ever wear them, this is a good way to convert these saris to clothes that you will wear more often.If you are a beginner, then cut the pattern pieces on paper first with the accurate measurements and then cut the cloth by placing the pattern pieces over to guide you.Look up in YouTube if you have doubts about how to do the neckline or attaching the sleeves perfectly; plenty of videos there. Practice, practice, practice.... soon you would be able to gift the special people in your life these fruits of your labor. 
Effort - tremendous. Output – I love it.Effect – Watch this blog for update on the surprise!

A kitty kind of love!

When I arrived at my home in Kerala in January, Mom told me that my dear cat Pullikutty had given birth to a little white kitten. Unfortunately, Pullikutty had hidden the kitten somewhere where we could not find it. Mom consoled me saying that the kitten sometimes came in out of nowhere literally and spent time with its mother. Pullikutty seemed happy to see me and followed me everywhere like Mary’ little lamb that day; there was no sign of the kitten however. I was disappointed but not for long…Because bright and early the next day, Pullikutty and the little kitten were waiting for me. The kitten is absolutely adorable and played ‘Peek-a-boo’ with me.  My little niece Mehak who is around 4 months old was visiting us and this was her first live experience with a cat; she was amazed at this little white ball of hair. The kitten tried its best to befriend Mehak by mewing… I think. For the next couple of days, the kitten made its appearance all of maybe twice that too for very short times. On the day, I was to return to Mumbai, I was again disappointed by the absence of the kitten; I felt sad that I won’t be able to say bye-bye.Still I decided to try my luck with Pullikutty. I told her that I was leaving and I wanted to see the ‘kitten’. I made the shape of kitten with my hands and even made some mewing noises. Pullikutty had this look as if I had gone crazy and my parents were busy trying to stifle their laughter at my antics. I went off to my room to do a last-minute check of my stuff. About half hour later, my Dad called me downstairs saying there was a surprise for me. I was curious so I rushed down.
At the door sat Pullikutty and its kitten.

Words cannot really express how I felt. Pullikutty had understood my antics and got its kitten so that I could say my goodbye. Even my parents who were laughing earlier, had looks of genuine amazement.
I truly believe that you don’t need a language for love; just a genuine heartfelt action that would have most people thinking you are crazy, would do for even an animal to understand you.
Here is to love that needs no language on Valentine’ Day!

Even if you missed the Sula Fest last week, don't miss an experience at the Sula Vineyards

Ever since I visited Sula Vineyards last year, I had thought of being one of the 12,000+ people for the Sula Fest this year. Alas! Last weekend was another one of those ‘very busy’ weekends. However, I recommend that you make a trip if you have not done so already.
Let me tell you, when my cousins suggested driving and staying a weekend at Sula Vineyards, I was really skeptical. I mean I had been to vineyards all over the world and I was thinking compared to those... this won't impress me much.Anyway, I thank God and my cousins for pulling me into this adventure.
So, we rented a self-drive ZoomCar and set out. Within 4 hours of a very scenic drive, we were at ‘Beyond’, a Sula resort. The road to this resort could do with complete remodelling; such were the potholes and I was starting to think that I was right in my estimation that it was not going to impress. But, I was having so much fun with my cousins so I lowered my expectations. As we were driving up to the resort, I was pleasantly surprised and charmed by the surroundings. While, we were checking in to ‘Beyond’, we were welcomed with wine… Sula of course. Our rooms were really spacious with a balcony or sit-out where we could sip wine and enjoy the scenery beyond. It cannot be a resort without the swimming pool; except the one here is called the Infinity Pool – the water seems to be pouring down to the vineyards beyond.Now I know why they named the resort ‘Beyond’!
While the guys were enjoying the pool; the girls were checking out the pool table in the Red Room which also has a variety of indoor games to keep everyone busy from foosball, table tennis, carom boards. After the guys joined, we had ‘girls vs boys’ competition where we would play all these games and total the points. Nothing was very healthy about this competition especially after the girls seemed to be beating the guys. Try as they might though, the guys were no match for the girls and the intelligent girls quit while they were ahead.Although Café Rose caters to the guests’ palate all day long, we decided to do the Vineyard tour and have lunch there. Lunch was a simple affair; the highlight being the pitcher of Sangria that we ordered and drank to our hearts’ content. The tour and wine-tasting afterwards were in every way comparable to vineyards all over the world and that is why Sula has 70%+ market share of the wine making in India. My Mom’s 65th birthday was around the corner and she loves her wine; so I bought her the Sula Zinfandel (red), Sula Riesling (white) and Sula Brut (sparkling) of which she loved the Riesling the best.A walk around the amphitheatre on the grounds worked well to dish up a good appetite for dinner. I read about the power packed performances here during the Sula Fest last week; I missed them especially Kailash Kher.
We played cards well into the night, got into our usual spats over ‘cheating’ and the like. We also tried working out at the gym overlooking the pool. Somehow, gym is not our cup of tea…. a walk around before breakfast was opted for then. Breakfast was very elaborate and we spent about almost an hour sampling the various sumptuous options. We zoomed into Mumbai even though it was much after the appointed time but ZoomCar folks were very accommodating of the late notice... Yay! 




Overall, it was a funtastttic not-to-miss experience. Even if you missed the Sula fest this year, don’t miss this paradise about 180 km beyond Mumbai.