Chennai
During her growing up years in Kumbakonam, Subashri Natarajan, CEO of city-based electrical distribution boards producer, Vagai Engineering Pvt. Ltd was never really allowed to venture out of the house after dark. It was the pre-television era, when there was not much one could do to while away time. “I remember sneaking up to my grandmother and admiring her crocheting skills. Sensing my interest in it, she taught me how to crochet when I was in school,” says Subashri.
On January 31, 2016 over 2,500 women from across 14 countries, subscribing to the Facebook group, Mother India’s Crochet Queens, wove the world’s largest crochet blanket in Chennai and broke the Guinness World Record. It took the ladies six months to weave an 11,148-sq m spread that covered the football field of MNM Jain Engineering College, Thoraipakkam. They came together not only to break the world record, but also further a noble cause. The blankets, individually crocheted and put together for the record, have since been given to the needy through NGOs in the city. At the helm of this incredible project was Subashri who recounted to us her incredible journey.
“All through my college and school life, I had heard friends mock at each other’s achievements saying ‘You haven’t exactly broken a Guinness World Record!’ Subconsciously, it was engraved in my mind, that I had to actually do something that would break a record. I didn’t know what -- but I knew I had to,” she recalls. Then she got married at the early age of 19 and moved to Mumbai. But that wasn’t an impediment to pursue her dreams. “I had plenty of time in hand and a supportive husband. I managed to complete my dual MBA post marriage. We moved to Chennai in 1995 and I joined Vaigai Engineering Private Limited as secretary to the Managing Director in 1990,” she says. Sheer hard work and great coordinating skills saw Subhashri climb the corporate ladder very quickly and become the CEO of the company. With a great career, two grownup daughters and her husband’s transferable job, Subashri had plenty of time at her disposal to follow her heart. Crochet came to her rescue in her free time. “Then in March 2015, I read an article about a crochet blanket measuring 464 sq m, created for the victims of the devastating 2011 earthquake by Bernd Kestler, a German knitter who lives in Yokohama, that had broken the Guinness World Record to become the world’s largest crochet blanket. It immediately got me thinking. I love to crochet, and since school, had always wanted to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. I knew I had found a way to combine both my passions,” she says.
She sent an application to the Guinness Book in mid-2015, which was immediately accepted. “I was also informed that I had to break the record of a South African group (they had managed to achieve the feat after Bernd), whose blanket measured 3,377 sq m. This was a huge challenge and I knew it could not be achieved on my own. When I shared my problem with my family, my daughters informed me that social media was a great medium to get people together for a cause. Since I am not that tech savvy, they helped me create the Facebook page in August 2015,” she says.
Within two months, the group had close to 2,000 members aged 8 to 85. The crochet enthusiasts from various parts of the world came together. The fact that it was all being done for a noble cause attracted many. “I used my professional managing skills to coordinate and even assigned associate coordinators in every area, who updated me on the progress. Chennai alone had 500 participants and 12 area coordinators. We probably were the single largest users of Whatsapp and Facebook over the last six months. I used these two platforms to communicate everything,” she jokes.
The group restricted itself to the simple granny square pattern, but some created their own designs as well. The blankets were then transported to Chennai. By January 23, 2016 Subashri had received all the 8,034 blankets. Then, they began the task of stitching them together and the final display took place at MNM Jain Engineering College on January 31. “I am thankful that so many people believed in my dream. Without doubting or questioning my motives, they dedicated six months of their lives solely towards this project. Now I can finally say, ‘I broke the Guinness World Record!’,” she exclaims.
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