Reenu Mathew's Blog: Reenued, page 5

Protect your crowning glory!

About a month ago, I was worried. At the rate that my hair was falling, I was looking to be bald in few years… at least that was what I felt. Yeah yeah yeah! Worry contributes to hair loss too.
Here is a solution that I tried; apparently it worked wonders on my hair when I was child… this judging by the long thick pigtails that I sported in my pictures of old.Oil your hair every alternate day without fail. The coconut oil should be warmed and into it goes a sprig of curry leaves, thulasi (basil) leaves and the rind of lemon (lucky if you have them fresh from your garden like I did courtesy my friend' garden. You should let the oil set for about 20 minutes.Use a shampoo that agrees with your hair to wash off the excess oil and dirt on the scalp. I have tried multiple shampoos and found that my hair prefers Dove or Tresemme; Wash the hair with a homemade conditioner. Take some hibiscus leaves (check for spots or worms), clean it with a tissue for dust (especially in Mumbai) and then pour some water over it. About 5 minutes later take the hibiscus leaves and rub them together till they start breaking out and then just grind it along with the water. You will get a green liquid which is called ‘Thalli’ in Malayalam. Use it on your hair after the shampoo; it is a great conditioner.
I have tried it and the results look encouraging. However, stress, worry and some strong allopathy medicines contribute greatly to hair loss so if you still have lumps of hair just falling off, you should have a doctor take a look at you and take appropriate remedial action recommended by your doctor.

Save your crowning glory before it is too late! I hope I have managed to be on the revival track.

Create your very own kurta!

Ever since I started renewing those things that had mesmerized me till I landed my job, the gifts that I receive from  family and friends  are always on the lines of encouraging and motivating me to pursue my dreams.
I have always loved designing my clothes and enjoyed sewing by hand. This year on my birthday, my parents got me a sewing machine and my friends got me lot of materials for my DIY sewing project. 
This Dusshera was special with the release of my second book and so I decided to design and sew a simple kurti for myself. 
The right cuts as per my measurements, the darts to accentuate the effect of the cut, getting the right length to make me look taller, the embellishments and embroidery... I did it all. It took me a day to complete it and I snapped a picture and sent it to my friend who had gifted me that particular material. 
Her overwhelmed voice and words to me will forever remain in my heart.
Makes me want to try more and more to create, check out the possibilities.  

Don't dispose off those wine bottles

I was cleaning the kitchen cupboards and I found a lot of wine bottles... I don't know how long they have been up there. I thought of our 'kabadi-wala' who would take away all those things that you no longer have any use of (old newspapers, bottles and what-have-you). I made plans to call him ASAP and take away all the 'junk' I had cleaned out.Thankfully, ASAP never materialized. 
My next-door neighbor who is a creative soul, is always giving me tips on reusing everything. She makes these fantastic stuff and we are always exchanging things we made with our own hands including food, pieces of clothing, accessories etc.
This Dusshera, I was racking my brains as to what I could make for her that she would love. Obviously, if it was a recycled and transformed product, then it would surely make her gush forth praises for me. & I am such a sucker for that.
Then, my eyes fell on these wine bottles and I decided to try something.
I painted it.
It works well as a vase now as you can see.But it could also be a candle stand or if you put some small lights in and flip the switch on, the effect could be dazzling.


I recommend that all of you try this at home and bring a smile to the face of your loved ones by reusing some empty bottles.
Wish you all a very happy Dusshera!!

For the love of freshly baked bread...

I love the aroma of freshly baked bread… who doesn’t? Now, if you were to get some fresh garlic and green leaves from your friend’ garden, maybe you want to just do something that sends your senses into overdrive. At least, I so wanted to… and I did exactly that by making Garlic Greens & Cheese Bread and eating those soft flaky bread slices along with my cup of tea with that dash of fresh mint. SIGH!! I need to walk a lot to balance those calories but it was sooooo worth it!
Garlic Greens & Cheese Bread RecipeINGREDIENTS 3 cups maida (self-raising flour)3 tbsp of finely chopped garlic and coriander leaves2 tbsp Amul Garlic & Herbs butter2 tbsp of grated cheese1 tsp active dry yeast1 tbsp sugarsalt to taste1 cup warm waterNote: My cup/vati can contain 100 ml of water
INSTRUCTIONSIn a large mixing bowl, mix 1 cup of maida, 1 tbsp of yeast, 1 tbsp of sugar and ½ tsp of salt.Add 1 cup of warm water. Whisk to make a smooth thick batter.Cover the bowl and keep it for an hour or till you see a bubbly and frothy layer on the top of the risen batter.Add the finely chopped garlic and greens and 1 cup maida and add 1 tbsp of the Amul Garlic & Herbs butter and whisk properly.Add the last cup of maida, whisk well and begin to knead.If the dough is sticky then add maida with a small teaspoon to make a smooth dough. If the dough is dry then add warm water enough to make a smooth dough.Spread the remaining butter all over the smooth pliable dough.Cover the bowl with a lid and leave it for about an hour or till the dough has risen to more than double its size.Gently punch it and knead it lightly again into smooth long log about 4” wide. Grease the baking tray with oil/ghee and put this dough on the baking tray to stand.Sprinkle the top with the grated cheese.Cover for about 30 minutes or until the dough has risen to around double the size for the 2nd time.About 10 minutes before baking the bread, preheat the oven at 180oC.Before placing the bread, coat the top with milk if you want the golden colour (optional).Place the baking tray in the centre rack in the preheated oven at 180oC degrees for 25 minutes. Check if the top is golden and if stick or knife tip inserted comes clean. If not, bake for another 5 minutes.Remove the loaf from the baking tray and place on the wired rack or tray.(Optional Step). While serving, cut the loaf of bread into oval pieces, apply Amul Garlic & Herbs Butter and heat on tava till golden. Sprinkle grated cheese and microwave for 10-20 seconds or put it the convection oven (setting: toast) for about 5-10 minutes.

Creating your green spaces

After a severe bout of food poisoning due to contamination of one or more of the leaves (coriander, mint, fenugreek, spinach, curry leaves), my friend decided to put her adequately spaced terrace and grilled windows to good use. Where earlier these were used to store all the things that had outlived its use and others that had been bought but still needed to make itself useful, now there were pots of different sizes and shapes housing the leafy greens – curry leaves, coriander, mint, fenugreek, spinach & basil and other roots like ginger and garlic. 
My observation was that it transforms the rooms especially the kitchen and the aroma... it is so fresh and welcoming. And of course, the health benefits have extended to all of us. I must tell you that tea with that dash of mint (pudhina), coupled with tasty snacks like coriander pathras (rolls) and fenugreek (methi) parathas at her place had me gushing ummmmms and ahhhhs!!Isn’t that motivation enough to grow my own greens?  

Note to Self: Motivation to convert to green spaces is one thing, contracting malaria and dengue due to mosquitoes breeding in water collected at the bottom of pots is quite another thing that must be avoided. Cleaning the spaces below the pots to be undertaken every week. Copy that! 

Create a custom concept Photo book for your little one!

I was asked to design a custom concept photo book for a 2-year old. My constraints were – working with photos that were taken from mobile phones and hence lacking the resolution and clarity that my high-end SLR would have provided, and fitting the concept to the photos rather than clicking photos that were suitable to the concept.
I kept the concept simple and something that a 2-year old could learn and identify with the help of his own photos – his view of the world around him including his family, home, personal habits, diet and even his dream vacation. My belief is that once the child sees himself with people and objects, he / she is able to remember it better. Ages 1-6 is significant for a child’ development because the child is continuously using the senses and grasping and learning. So, if you want to help your child identify objects faster and correlate with his/her life then it is best to weave a story or text so that the child sees the people and objects  in their natural surrounding – e.g. furniture at home, fruits and vegetables to be eaten, flowers in the garden, etc. Also, I feel that kids at this age should not be exposed to gadgets like smart phones and tablets and their time with TV should be limited to less than an hour per day.
So, I stripped the pictures, removed all references to phones / tablets and even TV and weaved the following story and modified the pictures in line with the background of the book – Photobook Cover PageStarting with him and his family, and his birthday celebrations. He decides to follow the instructions in a book that he received as a gift to become a good boy and make his parents proud. Good Habits from when he gets up in the morning to when he goes to sleep at night. This included the right eating habits where he identifies the vegetables and fruits and pulses and dairy products that would make him, the playtime rules including keeping the play things in its place and good behavior in the playground. While sleeping, he sees a dream where he travels by common modes of transport through forests on to a beach. He stays at a farmhouse which has several domesticated animals and birds and has a good view of the rivers and mountain scenery both during the day and night. Flap Cover
I even had a shiny flap cover in which the teaser / sample of the photo book had a prominent place. 
Net result: Parents overwhelmed with joy and a delighted child. Quite fulfilling, don't you think?

A stroll down memory lane

A few days ago, I met one of my close friends from school and junior college. We had lost touch after he left for US to do his post-graduation. Then out of the blue, about a year or so ago, courtesy Facebook, we got back in touch. Only almost twenty years had passed by.

As we got to talking, I realized that although we had been in the same cities at the same time on more than few occasions in the last twenty years, we never knew it and we certainly never came face-to-face even by chance / luck (as they show so frequently in the movies). When we filled in the blanks of our respective lives for the benefit of the other, that stroll down our childhood memory lane was truly memorable. I had forgotten some of those moments and even some people until this stroll. Two hours later, there were still so many moments to relive but our schedules were such that we had to put a stop to the reminiscing even though we did not want to. However that motivated him to plan another trip to Mumbai to go to all those places which had given us those moments of pure unadulterated fun. Something I am really looking forward to….
That night I was still in the euphoria of this meeting and I laughed to myself about  - the pranks we pulled, to the ‘secret crushes’ that our friends had entrusted to us, how we would save up enough money and then share the treats from the local eatery, our studies together, our celebration of different festivals in each other’ houses. If we were having so much fun, why did we part and not keep in touch and how come I cannot remember some of those people that I had so much fun with?

I think that with everyone changing over time and those changes needing space to grow, maybe at that time, instead of converging… our changes cause us to diverge. Instead of complaints and bitter words (which is just out there and cannot be taken back), it is better to probably take a step back and proceed on your life' journey. Maybe we will converge sometime later in life when we see no harm in meeting our earlier estranged friends halfway… well that may take days, weeks, months or in this case, twenty years… But when that time comes, do take that leap to meet and definitely do a time-travel mentally shoulder to shoulder as you used to earlier.  

Fashion Blooper Entry # 2

It was a special occasion; I was meeting my friend from school and junior college after 20 odd years… I wanted that first impression after so many years to be perfect. This is the problem with Facebook; you put some of your best pictures online and many of your friends from school and college have seen you and pictured you in your best, so you have to match up that expectation when you meet personally. At least, that is what I felt.
So, I dressed up in my best ‘comfy’ clothes considering the heat; the only luxury I allowed myself was the ‘almost -new-yet-been-in-the-closet-for-a-year-due-to-lack-of-right-occasion’ sandals (a blue & ivory colored 4-inch wedge heel) that made me look really cool & glam.So, there I was quite near to the place we were to meet when suddenly…
The heel came unglued…. in the middle of a crowded street.
Now, normally I carry spare shoes (I have so many of them, so why not) but because I wanted to get the ensemble right, I had a bag that did not have space for ‘spare’ anything.I could see neither a cobbler nor a shoe shop (this was a good reason to add some more shoes to my lay-in-the-closet collectionJ). What to do?
So, I tried to look as cool as a cucumber and proceeded to walk  with a 4 inch heel on 1 foot and almost no heel on the other. Now… I would not recommend that you ever try this. Unless of course you want to take a break from work or something and you are looking for a good excuse like a back sprain.I cursed myself for the nth time for not carrying my spare set. But my mistake actually was that I kept my shoes all locked up. Some racks of my shoe collection lie unopened for days even months on end. The result was there for me to see. And I made another realization as well, this was not the first time that my shoe had come apart perfectly at the heel and only needed gluing.

I learnt my lesson. As of today, all my footwear are ‘breathing easy’.