News clippings on Billion Beats website launch

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Kashmir’s first woman architect designed her own stepping stones to success

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By Mudassir Kuloo   | AUG 2017 SRINAGAR: When Ishrat Nowshehri started her schooling, she instinctively inclined towards the art of design and drawing. Her parents had expected her to become an engineer like her brother, or perhaps a doctor like her two sisters. But Ishrat chose a field that almost no Kashmiri girl had till then __ architecture. Two decades back, architecture as a career for a woman in Kashmir was unheard of. Her parents were apprehensive and skeptical initially. But once they realized that it was in architecture and design that her heart lay, they backed her unconditionally. “When my parents realised that I am really interested in drawing and designing, they fully supported me,” says Ishrat, who has the distinction of being Kashmir’s first female architect. To realize her dream, Ishrat travelled to the other end of the country: after completing her high school, she did the five-year Bachelor of Architecture course from Karnataka University, graduating i
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His life is his message

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By Parimala Hariprasad  | DEC 2016   American author Seth Godin once wrote, “Emotional labour is the hard work of making art, producing generosity and exposing creativity. Working without a map involves both vision and the willingness to do something about what you see.” In the recent past, I met Perianna who expends emotional labour at work. Perianna known as Thaatha is a daily wager from Tirupattur. His work has taken him to different parts of Tamil Nadu in the past. This time around, work brought him to Bengaluru, thanks to his contractor’s new work deal. My children and I felt gifted to have talks with him during our evening walk. Perianna is very cheerful. There’s not a single day when you won’t spot his smile. At first, you’ll wonder what work he can do in his early 60s. However, you’ll be amazed at the kind of hard work he does, and in some sense, hard workouts too! Perianna leaves his family behind in Tirupattur while work takes him to places. He says he can’t affor
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‘Blood man’ of Kashmir has donated 140 pints in 34 years

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By Mudassir Kuloo   | JAN 2016   For Shabir Hussain Khan, the key ingredient to make happiness out of life’s menu, is not available in the market, it is within. At 47, he has made a ritual of donating his blood four to five times a year. Khan, who first donated blood in 1980 at the age of 13, has since donated 140 pints of blood, a mark of distinction he holds in his native state, Kashmir. Khan has been giving a part of his life for the last 35 years and according to him, he is determined to donate blood till he attains the age of 65. “It has not affected my health but gives me immense satisfaction that my blood is saving lives,” said Khan, who earns his living by working on paper mache. A resident of Alie Kadal of Old City Srinagar, besides donating blood, he has been running an awareness campaign, convincing people to follow him. He has established an NGO which has been organising blood donation camps across the valley. Khan has also donated blood in New Delhi, Tamil Nad
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