QL Exclusive: An interview with the founder of SCALE Qatar, Sindhu Nair

Qatar Living speaks to Qatar-based editor and founder of SCALE Qatar, Sindhu Nair, to know more about her experience and career journey.

Sindhu holds a bachelor’s in architecture degree and a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism from London School of Journalism.

She came to Qatar in 2003. She works as an editor-in-chief with New York Times Style Magazine - Qatar edition.

Sindhu has more than 20 years of writing experience in the field of architecture, business, construction, and human rights working across various magazines.

“I am always interested to know more and dig deep about any new topic. So basically, my curiosity to know more about any new topic led me to journalism and writing,” she said.

At the beginning of her journey, she started to be passionate to learn everything about writing then this led her to study journalism.

“I started off by being self-taught and just following my passion for writing but later on as I progressed in my career, I felt that I needed to be qualified to take a leadership position, and then I went on to study Journalism,” Sindhu mentioned.

She was selected by the Doha Women’s Forum, to be one of the 31 inspiring women of Doha.

Additionally, she won the Best Media Personality in the Jwala Women’s Award in 2021.

“The biggest awards were the magazines and that they were well appreciated by readers,” she said.

I learned that anything you dream can be possible if you work hard towards it. If you believe in it and are willing to work diligently, but you need to dream,” she described.

Behind her writing, she always tries to send a message to all the readers, Sindhu said.

“With my project SCALE, I have always wanted to make people astonished or intrigued by design and architecture to make them understand how architecture can affect us in ways that we don’t even comprehend. I think I have stirred imagination with some great projects, and I hope to continue with that,” she explained.

At the start of her project, Sindhu faced many challenges as she needed to start it from zero.

“It has been tough as I had to build it from scratch. From the name to the idea behind it, its vision and then working towards achieving it,” she said.

“The biggest challenge was just to take the step, to plunge into entrepreneurship when I had reached heights in the publishing firm already,” she added.

COVID-19 affected many lives, and many people had a very tough times during this period. Sindhu tried her best to make this time pass positively as she learned a lot how to be organized.

“It made me organize webinars and bring together architects and designers from around the world to my screen, on my laptop. It made me find and write about projects that were extraordinary in these times,” she said.

Sindhu concluded with simple yet powerful words, “Dream on.”

To know more about Sindhu and her project, you can check her on Instagram @sindhu_nair and @scale_qatar

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