THURSDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2017 COMMUNITY |6 BOLLYWOOD | 11 Indian Embassy Anil Kapoor credits marks National career to Padmini Unity Day Kolhapure To pass the time, Nastasia P | 4-5 Yakoub began posting old snapshots under her Insta- gram handle, @ EXPLORING DameTraveler. Following an outpouring of attention, she opened the account to the CREATIVITY community and began reposting tagged images that caught her eye. 03 THURSDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2017 CAMPUS Birla Public School bags Sustainability Initiative award AMUAAQ celebrates irla Public School won the harmony with their Sir Syed’s bicentennial prestigious prize for the surroundings. BGreen Educational Build- Qatar Sustainability Awards ing in the 2nd Annual Qatar aim to recognise the efforts, com- he AMU Alumni Association of Honour. Sustainability Awards ceremony mitment, and contributions of of Qatar Chapter (AMUAAQ) More than 400 Alig’s, guest, held at the Rotana City Centre, individuals, institutions and Tcelebrated the 200th birth school principal, presidents of Doha on October 29. organizations in furthering sus- anniversary of the university’s many affiliated organisations, The members of the BIRLA- tainable development and founder “Sir Syed Ahmad Khan” on businessmen, media fraternity and SPHERE (Eco Club of Birla Public environmental protection in October 26 at Sheraton Grand professor from Qatar Foundation School) created ‘magic’ by mak- Qatar and beyond. Doha Resort & Convention Hotel. and Qatar University attended the ing their school building The main categories include Mani Shankar Aiyar, former event. environment-friendly, with var- green buildings, green hospital- Union Cabinet minister of Petro- Sarwar Mirza greeted all the ious projects like Save Water, ity, green service providers, leum, Government of India was the attendees and Aqeel Ahmed, host Save Electricity, Recycling of building products and technolo- chief guest from India and Dr P of the programme introduced the waste materials, Cleanliness gies, green research and Mohammed Ali, Chairman of Gal- AMUAAQ and its tradition to the campaign, Kitchen Gardening, etc. sustainability initiatives. far Group, Oman, was the chief audience. The main campus located at The school Eco Club owes guest from Middle East, while Dr The Sir Syed Day function Ras Abboud st, opposite Religious much to the enthusiasm and Mohammad Aleem, representing ended with AMU’s nostalgic Tarana Complex Abu Hamour, is a per- motivation of its incharge, Indian Embassy; M S Bukhari, by AMUAAQ team led by Johny fect example of a ‘Green’ building, Rakesh Verma, senior teacher in Managing Director of Satco group Foster and followed by dinner. The where students learn to study in Social Studies. and Johny Foster, noted Gazal Ghazal programme was held after singer from AMU were the Guests the main function. Vedic Mathematics introduced to DPS-MIS students PS–Modern Indian School (DPS-MIS) had organised ‘Memory Power’ event, a brainstorming in-house orientation programme, held on October 26 at he school Dauditorium led by Dhaval Bathia. The chief guest and speaker for the day Daval Bathia,a celebrated Indian author and teacher who currently holds two world records and has authored five international best sellers, enticed the entire audience with befitting techniques like ‘Birthday Magic’, ‘Money Magic’ or ‘Brother-sister Magic’ that could be used in complex mathematical calcula- tions in easy and accurate manner to guess the birthdates, or number of siblings of any individual. The students learned simple ways of remembering long list of words, com- plicated maps and names of states and their capitals. The one hour workshop introduced the students to ‘Vedic Mathematics’ designed to reinforce the power of the brain. The principal, Asna Nafees earnestly acknowledged the endeavour of Bathia to spread the knowledge that will prove constructive and beneficial for all students, not only dur- ing exams but will also help them boost their confidence and eliminate redundant mental blockages. 04 COVER STORY THURSDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2017 The Washington Post hen a workplace accident left her on bed rest for nine months in 2013, Nastasia WYakoub’s future in nursing was uncertain at best. “I fell into depression because I had studied for four and a half years to became a labour-and-delivery nurse,” Yakoub, 30, said. “I needed something to distract me.” To pass the time, she began posting old snapshots under her Instagram handle, @DameTrave- ler, a name chosen to share the empowering concept of independ- ent female travelers. After the popular @BeautifulDestinations reposted one of her photos along with its hashtag, Yakoub was inspired to add a hashtag to her own posts. Following an outpour- ing of attention, she opened the account to the community and began reposting tagged images that caught her eye. More than 1.5 million posts of young women conquering pictur- Meet the people behind esque world destinations now appear under #DameTraveler, all hoping to be featured on the Instagram's popular travel accounts account, which has 387,000 follow- ers. Many popular travel accounts have implemented the same hash- repost - known as regramming - tag-based curatorial methods to earns the photographer a certain gather content, and @BeautifulD- amount of travel-elite street cred. estinations tops 9.8 million “About 2 percent of what you see followers, compared with old- on the account is my photography; school travel publishers such as the rest is other people’s,” said Andy Conde Nast Traveler, which has 1.4 McCune, 22, who oversees @Earth, million. an account with more than Unlike traditional influencers - 800,000 followers. “We get hun- adspeak for high-profile people dreds of DMs and about 50 to 90 who drive public opinion - the users email submissions every day.” behind these indie accounts are not McCune got the prime handle the stars of the show. Yakoub occa- from a friend who was an early sionally appears on the @ adopter of the platform. His itera- DameTraveler feed, but documents tion of @Earth was launched in 2015. her own travels on a personal McCune curates the feed and seeks account, @nastasiaspassport. out images that reflect his appreci- She said that it takes her 30 ation of nature. A Washington-state minutes to an hour to pick each native, he favours lush, towering DameTraveler image, and she forests, mist-frosted mountain chooses one or two per day from peaks and frothy rushes of water. those appearing under the In the account’s early days, hashtag. McCune reached out to notable “I’m very picky about the aes- travel photographers with large fol- thetic and feel,” she said. “That lowings and began to repost work quality of the feed is what makes it that fit his aesthetic. successful.” In addition to the exposure, a 05 THURSDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2017 COVER STORY “Once I gained three or four relationships, we started get- ting more intros and the ball kept rolling,” he said. “It’s given me some of the best friends of my life.” As the clout of social-media influencers increases, some accounts have become modern-day travel guides. McCune, who splits his time between New York City and Tulum, Mex- ico, has expanded @Earth’s reach by partnering with YouTube vloggers and social media travel mavens to create travel guides, photo journals and video content. (He curates @Tulum, as well as @Traveler and @Forest.) Yakoub did something similar, creating additional handles such as @DameTravel- erFoodie and @DameTravelerHotels to zero in on specific categories. Like McCune and Yakoub, 31-year-old Zach Houghton started out with an Instragram account and ended up with a full-time job. “I never set out to create something this big,” said Houghton, who curates @Passionpassport, an account with almost 900,000 followers. “I first started to showcase the beauty of travel and create editorial content that gives peo- ple the opportunity to understand what power travel has in our own lives.” The former trader was working in Hong Kong when he left the world of finance for a nine-month, 15-country trek that he documented in a blog and on Instagram. When the project ended, he opened the account to the community. By 2015, the hashtag had 1 million photos; today, it has more than 10 million. Houghton ultimately parlayed @Passion- passport into Passport Studio, a company that creates sponsored content around the themes of travel and discov- ery. The hashtag that started it all remains among Instagram’s top travel accounts, and Houghton says that he’s still on the lookout for undiscovered photographers with the same spirit that inspired him to start the account. “Everyone has valid things to do and say and show, if you give them the opportunity to do so,” he said. “It’s not just those epic, jaw-dropping moments - it’s those quiet moments of travel that are worthy to talk about.” 06 COMMUNITY THURSDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2017 Indian Embassy marks National Unity Day ndian Embassy marked National Unity Day - Rashtriya Ekta IDiwas) to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Valla- bhbhai Patel at its premises on October 31. P Kumaran, Indian Ambassa- dor, paid tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and recollected his extraordinary works towards unity and integrity of the country, as First Home Minister of India and Deputy Prime Minister. He said that he can be rightly pendence Act 1947 was praised. our country. of the Embassy of India and the called as one of the founding fathers He said that the National Unity The Ambassador also adminis- Indian Schools are also organising of the Republic of India. Day will provide an opportunity to tered a pledge on the occasion. The the day to spread the message of Sardar’s role in integrating re-affirm the inherent strength and event ended with the screening of Sardar Patel by conducting photo more than 500 independent resilience of our nation to withstand a documentary on life and achieve- exhibitions, quiz competition and princely states in 1947 to 1949 from the actual and potential threats to ment of Sardar patel.