For Emreen

This is a post that has come in just too late...I don't think the saying "better late than never" even makes sense in this context. For the procrastinator in me, there cannot be a bigger lesson from Life-never put off until tomorrow what you must do today. Never think there will be enough time later to show or tell someone what they mean to you. Posting this today will not make a difference to my dear friend Emreen, about whom I am writing this, unless I believe that she is up there reading this and smiling the way she usually does...but I have to do it, for myself, if not for anybody else, before I can even begin to think about blogging again. There are just too many memories, so much joy, and yet too much pain even now for me to record everything about what Emreen means to me, so I am not going to even try. But this is a post that I had intended to do long before, so I am going to go ahead and do it anyway.

This is dedicated to my best friend, my confidante, my co-conspirator, my soul sister, my blogger pal, my 3 a.m. friend...Emreen Xavier. She passed away on May 18, 2013. She was a person of many talents, but above all, she knew how to be a true friend, a friend who was always there for me, no matter what. 

Emreen and I met 10 years ago, when I was working in an IT park in Trivandrum and she came there to do her project for her bachelors in engineering. We shared the same room in hostel. She went on to do her masters in engineering, being a star student through her academic life. Even though she settled in a different state and city from mine, she kept in touch with me through email, chats, phone calls, sms, cards, thoughtful little gifts, throughout the 10 years since. We saw each other through getting married, me having a baby, us changing jobs, changing cities, changing friends, changing houses, all of it.

Emreen and I started our blogging journeys almost at the same time, she a few months after I started my blog. She had a passion for all things beautiful in life. She had a knack for bringing beauty into everyday spaces. She loved interior decor. Even when working as an engineer and lead in a tech company, she took the time and made the effort to study for a course in interior design, another course in ikebana, a course in baking....She used to make lovely jewellery just for her friends. She loved flowers. She always had beautiful flower arrangements in her home.  Her dining table would have interesting centerpieces made by her almost all the time.  She was artistic and created many crafty things with her hands and heart. Her Pinterest boards are full of collections of beautiful things that show her passion for interior decor. Each collection has been neatly organized according to spaces in a house-dining, kitchen, bedroom, outdoor garden, indoor garden, etc. Her last blog post was just less than 24 hours before she passed away and it was full of beautiful photographs that she had taken herself. This is her blog-Liven Things Up. Just before she passed away, she also became a featured writer on the well-known website Magic Bricks. Her articles were all about home improvement and interior decor and you can read them here-Decor Posts by Emreen Xavier

Emreen was a huge inspiration for me not just in life, but also specifically for this blog of mine, so that is what I want to talk about here. She loved giving me suggestions and advice on different aspects of my blog. The "Timesavers/Tips" section on the tab above is her idea, for example. She used to search the net and find me classes to go to to further my interests in baking. She used to share pics and links of beautiful things that she found when browsing the net and I could expect at least one email a day from her on this-from fashion to recipes to kitchen gadgets to children's toys, everything of interest to me. We used to share with each other the latest blogging trends, widgets, sites, tips and tricks, etc. When I accidentally deleted all my blog comments a few months ago, she was the first one I called and cried!  Her last email to me was that she wanted me to start a new section on my blog. These are her words, 

"Hi kary,

I really want you to start a series about cooking utensils ( say ‘ I heart’) that you would like to have at your kitchen… That way you need not even try it out or write a review about it…

I am sure it will be a big hit….'

So yes, Emreen, wherever you are, you will have your wish...I will be starting it soon!

Emreen used to send me numerous recipe books and recipe magazines that she felt I would like. Knowing that I like Italian cuisine, she sent me two books on that. She also sent me beautiful white porcelain serving platters, specifically to present and photograph food items for my blog because "a white background will make the food look more beautiful!". That was how thoughtful she was...

I had always intended this post as a kind of surprise for Emreen, with recipes and pictures of foods cooked from the books and photographed on the dishes she sent me. I had wanted her to see this, knowing that it would make her very happy. All along, I kept postponing it to after I completed the course I was studying for, as I would get more time on my hands after all the coursework and exams got over. Emreen passed away barely a week after my course got over and the results were announced. I never ever imagined that this post would come too late, that I would be talking about her in the past tense, that she would never see all the recipes, all the photographs I had taken with her gifts. All this while, I was keeping it as a surprise for her and now, it really wouldn't matter whether I post this or not, but still I have to, for her memory sake at least....

Some of the books Emreen sent me.

She would also enthusiastically cook recipes from this blog, plate and prop them up stylistically, photograph them and send them to my blog's Facebook page...These were so much more beautiful than the ones I took and showed her artistic flair...She was the only one who used to take the effort to do all this and it meant the world to me...These are some of her pictures...

And these are the pictures taken by me using the dishes she sent me, specially for this blog..

The only thing I can now do now in Emreen's memory is to do as she always wanted me to do-follow my heart and my passions...and I will try to be the kind of friend Emreen was to me, to others I may meet as life goes by...always there and always smiling!

Emreen surrounded by her favorite flowers.