Nearly 700 Indian women, including 95 from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane, have set a Guinness World Record for the longest crocheted scarf, measuring 14.09 km.
The women are members of Mother India’s Crochet Queens (MICQ). The Mumbai region alone contributed 794 scarves to the challenge, adjudicated on May 21 in Chennai.
“Altogether 95 crochet queens aged 14 to 86 years crocheted scarves day and night from the Mumbai region,” said Mallika Natarajan, Mumbai regional co-ordinator. Mallika herself crocheted 49 scarves and also made a peace dove graphgan, or a crochet blanket. The youngest in the Mumbai region, Harshini Bhuvarahan (14) crocheted two scarves while the oldest two — Sivaraman Kalyani (86) and Seethalakshmy Pattabhiraman (86) crocheted 20 and 16 scarves respectively.
Most of the scarves will be sent to the Secretary General of the United Nations, heads of state of the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Japan, China, Russia and other prominent members of the UN with the aim of promoting peace.
“The rest of the scarves were donated to different pre verified NGOs and social organisations all over India after the announcement of the result,” said Ms. Natarajan.
In January 2016, MICQ had created a Guinness World Record for the largest crochet blanket of 11,448 sq m. More than 1,000 Indian women from across the world had participated in the event. MICQ had donated all the 8,072 blankets to the needy with the help of the Tamil Nadu police department. The Hindu had reported on MICQ’s effort on March 9, 2017.
“This was the result of four months of intense involvement by more than 700 members from across the country and the globe who wished to do something for society,” said Subashri Natarajan (45), MICQ founder. The recent attempt, in association with the Indian Skill Development Council, is dedicated towards world peace and supports the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, she said.
Symbol of unity
“These scarves are a symbol of unity achieved through cooperation of the team members from across the world,” said J.P. Singh, Director, ISD Council.
The event gave participants a new high. “It is heart-warming to know that our efforts have paid results and the crochet queens have once again created a Guinness World Record. We hope to spread the message of peace and solidarity across the world through this initiative,” said Ms. Pattabhiraman.
An awards function will be held in the Capital in July.
