Dubai: Indian expatriate Sitabai Bhagwandas Vagh, a longtime UAE resident, will turn 80 in July. She is a grandma of five and great grandma of two children. She has artificial knee caps, can only see with her right eye and has undergone surgeries to remove a tumour from her intestine and cataract.
However, the age and the physical challenges did not discourage Sitabai, who has spent most of her life in the GCC countries, from knitting her way into the Guinness World Records.
On May 21, she became one of the oldest participants among 700 Indian women across the world who set a new Guinness World Record in Chennai by making the longest crocheted scarf measuring 14.09km. Once she receives her participation certificate from Guinness, she would probably be the oldest Guinness World Record holder living in the UAE too. However, this could not be verified because Guinness officials in Dubai said they document the age of the participants only when the attempt is to become the oldest person to break a record.
Sitabai could achieve the feat after she became a member of the Dubai branch of the Facebook group Mother India’s Crochet Queens (MICQ) which set its second world record in two years. In January last year, they broke the record for the largest crochet blanket measuring 111,48 square metres, easily covering the football pitch in Chennai on which it was laid.
Inspired by their victory last year, the advocates of the dying craft embarked on their second attempt to create a new record in making the largest crocheted scarf. When she heard about the participation of Indian women in the UAE, Sitabai did not think twice.
“I used to crochet when I was young. So I wanted to participate in this great initiative,” she told Gulf News.
“Age should not restrict you from doing whatever you can. Keep working till the end and do good to others,” she said as her message to the youngsters.
What inspired the great grandma was not just the prospect of becoming a Guinness World Record holder. She also loved the idea of donating the woollen scarves to the needy people in India after the record attempting event just like what MICQ members did last time with the blankets.
Adding more value to their mission, the MICQ team formed by Chennai-based Subashri Natarajan this time dedicated their attempt for promoting international peace and thwarting the arms race.
The MICQ’s Dubai regional head, Vinothini Ramesh Babu, who flew to Chennai for the Guinness event, said 49 women and six children crocheted 268 scarves from the UAE.
“Almost 25 of us participated for the second time. The rest of us are first timers. We made scarves of seven inches width and 80 inches length, using 6.5mm crochet hook as per the rules from Guinness office.”
Sitabai made four scarves. “It took only a couple of hours for me to make one scarf. But I could not do more during those days because I fell sick and had to go to India for treatment.”
She and other participants are now eagerly waiting to receive their certificate from the Guinness office. “We are not only proud about setting the record. We are proud to be donating the scarves to the poor people for using them in winter. It is our gift from the UAE in this Year of Giving,” Sitabai said.
