Our Diary

Past year has been about dresses and skirts. With this intention, we bought the tie & dye, panelled pinafore maxi dress from Love The World Today for Noor’s 5th birthday. This soon became her favourite dress. I guess it made her feel fancy yet comfortable. This dress has been extensively used to dance and prance around in throughout the day.

Earlier this year, a friend loaned us The Clever Tailor by Srividhya Venkat to read over the summers. It is the story of a thrifty tailor who uses his creativity and imagination to make something for each member of his family. He repurposes the same piece of fabric to make something for his entire family thereby creating a beautiful kahaani (story) that would never wear out. 

For me, this was a beautiful story of upcycling, of creatively reusing an item, to keep it in use indefinitely. 

A few days back, I noticed that the bib part of the pinafore dress was getting tighter. My daughter pulled the straps tightly and one of the buttons came off. My immediate thought was to retire this dress, maybe put it in the donation pile. In today's day and age, it seems easier to just go out and pick up new things.

My mother, masi and granny would often talk about how they wore each other’s clothes, borrowed baby clothes for the next child in the family. However, somewhere during our parent’s aspirational generation, the practice of repurposing (upcycling), exchanging and passing on items to others (swap or preloved) faded. Our generation grew up always wanting more, shopping for therapy and throwing away regardless of the environmental costs and concerns.

I was no different. I decided to donate the dress. I washed it and put it out to dry and started browsing for new dresses. However, little miss sunshine wasn't ready to part ways with her dress. She picked it up from the clothesline and tied the loose straps into a knot at the back, and happily got busy playing in her halter dress. I noticed that she wore her shirt on top of the dress to keep warm. The earthy mama angel took over my thought process and I started browsing Pinterest on ideas to upcycle the pinafore maxi dress into a skirt.

Originally, I thought that I could DIY myself around this upcycling project. But, I don't know how to mend, never bothered to learn it. In fact, mending as a skill isn't taught anymore in homes and schools. Repurposing, Repairing and Refashioning are becoming a lost art. 

The greater challenge that I faced was that this dress came with invisible pockets, and like me, my daughter likes her dresses with pockets. Usable pockets to sneak in her pretend house keys, her handkerchief or few coins, crayons and chalks. I wasn't about to lose these pretty pockets while trying to refashion the dress myself. So, crippled by my own lack of sewing and mending skills, I went to my local tailor. I explained to him my intentions with urgent passion. He smiled and said, "Madamji, yeh toh hamare roz ka kaam hai. Aap tension mat lo!" (Madam, we do this repair work on a daily basis. You don’t stress, we will take care of it)… And voila, in 10 minutes a totally rad skirt was refashioned with pockets and all. I call it the Super Speedy Skirt! 

 My daughter was over the moon with this dress to skirt refashion. She twirled around in her skirt for a long time, pairing it with different colors. This basic transformation came with a personal parental realization that being happy with what we have is an important lesson that we as parents need to imbibe and transfer onto our children.

Half year later, the dress that became a skirt and the skirt that had been worn way too many times, got a rip. My daughter still wanted to keep wearing her skirt. You know how well-worn clothes are softer and comfortable. They feel nice and warm against the skin. The same was the case with this skirt. We retired the skirt from outdoor box and made a space for it in the home wear box. However, months later she had completely worn this skirt out. So, taking clues from the book ‘The Clever Tailor’, I decided to get the skirt repurposed into a doll dress and some handkerchiefs. 

The best part about upcycling is that you are always giving a new use or value adding to an old item. It is essentially giving something old a new meaning! That’s exciting for sure.

Also, there is an indescribable feeling of reverence towards the workmanship of the tailor who helps one in making something broken, whole again. This time too, our local tailor stitched the doll dress with same patience, as he would do for any human garment. This time, Noor sat at his shop observing while he sewed Velcro patches onto her doll dress.

I have seen the LTWT dress go through these transformations, thereby extending the lifecycle of the clothing. I would like to think that we too were weaving a beautiful kahaani (story) with each upcycling idea with this dress. I have seen firsthand the joy that it brought to my daughter. I am documenting this so that when she grows up she can read this and relive the story and also in the hopes that it inspires readers to start and share their upcycling ideas and initiatives with their favorite LTWT clothes.

[believes that people around the world have an innate desire to dream, share and express. She is an earthy mama storyteller and lifestyle blogger at  Jugniology and a Birth Photographer & Filmmaker at Storiously. She is a prenatal and babywearing dance teacher at GroovaRoo with Jugni , it is her passion to spread the joyful energy of rhythm and movement to babies and their families in India.]

As bed time nears we have a negotiation ritual each day.

‘Mama can we please have one story today?'

And as I am a little strict about A sticking to her bed time each night, some days I have to decline. She is getting better at her negotiation skills though. Last night she said, “You know, right? I will not always ask you to read me a story and I will not always need a torch light, I will grow up some day”

 :(

With THAT dialogue and some drama not only did she manage one, but two stories from me!  

When I look back now, I realise I have actually learnt a lot from her in the last five years. Today being Children’s day, it just seems like the perfect opportunity to thank her for this gift of motherhood and a lot more. 

So here's a letter to you dearest A,

Thank you for all the little things you have made me relearn over the last few years! 

• To wake up with a smile- Right from the way you wake up each morning with a big smile on your face and so much cheer, and no agenda really:), makes me realise we must slow down and enjoy each day as it comes. Smile and spread the cheer. Each day is a new day and we need to start afresh without carrying any baggage from the day that went by! 
• To value the small things in life - The way you tell me your endless tales each night right before sleeping - makes me realise the little little things that are so important for you. You make me want to pay attention to all the small things and the little conversations I have around me. 
• A lot of patience, A LOT! - Well, your endless conversations that happen at your sweet (read: very slow) pace have made me very patient too! 
• The ability to laugh unfettered - Laughing at the silliest of things and being unfettered and not just be able to do this after downing 3 glasses of wine! :P. Laugh as though no one's watching you :) 
• Being kind - The other day when I came back home, this little one left a note on the fridge for her nanny saying that she missed her and was glad she is back from her leave. She also said I love you didi. Made me realise how important it was to express how you feel towards other people. We rarely get the time to tell others how we feel these days! Leave aside just expressing how much you love them. I hope you never stop saying goodbye to me each morning with a small kiss and that sweet I love you mama! That truly makes my day.
• To be happy, joyful and excited about every thing you do. Even a mundane task like cleaning up or laying the table is done with much enthusiasm. You make me see the joy in doing the most mundane tasks. 
• Learning to express my feelings. How you feel about things around you, about things you felt bad, about things you enjoyed each day. About the laughter you shared with your friends or the joy you had in playing a prank! Being able to express what you are feeling and voice it out is something I have learnt from you!
• To be inquisitive. The whys can be annoying at times, am sure all moms will agree. But it’s amazing how you will always ask me things you don’t know and not be ashamed of how silly the question might be! 
• To go that extra mile for my friends. Childhood and friendships are precious. I think as we grow we become these humans who are so absorbed in their life between work, home and kid. Thanks to you, I would have reconnected with a couple of my older friends and may be made that effort to pick up the phone and make that pending conversation.
• Letting go! This one I still need to master :). I think with the ease I ask you to let go of that Elsa doll at the toy shop or the little pony, I too should train my self to let go that one dress I really want :D

Well, the list will go on! But here’s a small wish for you on this special day, I hope your life turns out to be such, that each day you get to do something that makes your heart sing! 

We are living in a time when entrepreneurship is in its full bloom, people are full of ideas, people want to take risks and dream big, people want to lead a life on their own terms and slog it out to make that happen.

On the outside it does look quite pretty - to lead a life on your own terms. But only people in the start up world know what it takes - the hours, the non existent social life, the struggle, the anxieties, the months without salary.

There’s a lot that we give to our businesses, our so called babies.

But I’ve realised there’s a lot more that my business has given to me in 1.5 years than I could have ever managed on my own.

So here’s writing a letter to my business today.

Dear Love the World Today,

We started out a while back and I honestly didn’t think it would be such a tough and satisfying ride. I always hated the term ‘business’ and I remember being shy of telling the world that I’ve started my own business out of fear of being looked down upon as someone who has sold their soul to the big bad world driven by money. But I’ve seen such a transformation in the past 1.5 years thanks to all that you’ve brought into my life. I now take immense pride in saying that I’m the co-founder of a purposeful business. You’ve given me so much and I must let you know how thankful I am for that,

1. Thank you for changing my buying habits. I used to be someone who loved shopping and loved brands. I cannot stand malls anymore. I prefer researching a brand and understanding the make of clothes before buying them - what fabric it uses, where is it stitched and why it costs the way it costs. I’m happier owning a LOT LESSER but knowing that every outfit I wear is made responsibly, will last me long and even though it may not be trendy, it represents me and can be worn in a lot of other ways.
2. Thank you for making me hate plastic. I take immense pride in carrying cloth bags when I step down to buy some groceries. I take immense pride in my little steel bottle and copper water bottle that go with me wherever I go. I’ll be honest though that everytime I pack a courier for LTWT, I don’t know how to safeguard the delicate handwoven whites and end up putting those few pieces in seal kings and ofcourse the courier bag itself. I can only hope that these are getting reused by the homes that they go to - to store shoes or paper or pack dabbas.
3. My husband made me realise that we can get rid of body washes and move to soaps since we’ll reduce the packaging trash we create. And I happily embraced the idea which I may not have done earlier.
4. No more straws for me with coconut water at home.
5. I’ve finally mustered the courage to order cloth panty liners.
6. I value nature way more than before. I’ve always been a nature lover but I feel a sense of ownership and responsibility now. The world truly is ours and we are nothing but teeny tiny smallies in front of it.
7. I’ve met some of the most beautiful and inspiring people through my journey. The guys at Happy Startup School and Ashram Week. All the social entrepreneurs through Unlimited India. And it makes me so happy and hopeful that in spite of all that’s wrong with the world, there are people who care.
8. Oh! And my wedding outfits were a dream thanks to you. For all I cared was that these are classic handwoven textiles and nothing synthetic. I know I’m going to use my wedding outfits for years to come.
9. I only buy what I absolutely need and love. I care for my things a lot more.
10. My new home doesn’t have much storage space because we realised that if we don’t have storage space, we won’t be tempted to buy and hoard. And it’s actually possible to fit your whole world in pretty much a wardrobe.

Of course, the more you read and research on sustainability, it’s like pandora’s box and now I’m beginning to see the true extent of damage we might have caused to the world around us, how every single choice we make (right from the toothbrush we use) affects the planet and I also feel depressed at times that we might have reached a point of no return. But something inside of me tells me that we’ve got to try.

So here it is, a small list of all positive things you’ve brought to my life. They may seem really small but to me they are a big change in who I am and who I am becoming. And that to me is far more important than any other ambition.

Love!