Now in Print

Some work to share with you today.

In the September issue of Elle magazine, I have a piece titled Banking on Women.

“What is a lender to do when a person defaults on his loan payments, doesn’t respond to legal notices, and isn’t intimidated by tough talk? Why, send in the women, of course. ELLE investigates an all-women loan recovery agency.”

Also in last week’s edition of TIME was my piece Three Hours in Kolkata.

All In a Day’s Work

I was greeted with four rejections this morning. Life’s way of making sure I don’t get too cocky and begin to think I’m always on-target. One was from a low-paying publication that I don’t even like, so that admittedly hurt a little bit. Okay, a lot.

I get rejected frequently, but I realized I don’t ever mention it on the blog. Not because I’m embarrassed by it or because it might seem like I don’t have it all together, but because it doesn’t bother me at all anymore. If I send out ten queries and get five acceptances, I’m usually just happy that I’ve got five new assignments to work on. These days, I tend to send batches of ideas anyway, so I might get a no on two and a yes on one (or the other way around) and I suppose that takes away the edge from the rejection as well.

There’s a story that I’m desperate to sell and start work on, but so far, my top two markets for it haven’t quite taken to it: I’ve already been rejected by one editor and the other is still pondering. Think it might have to get sent out again today. I’m currently struggling with the choice of sending it to a higher-prestige, higher-paying market and playing the waiting game or sending it out to a slightly lower-paying, slightly less prestigious market that will quell my impatience to work on it. What would you do?

In other news, my story Seeking a Groom With a Loo appears in the June issue of Elle magazine: “There’s a revolutionary idea spreading across small towns and villages in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, as more and more girls are refusing to marry men who have no toilets in their homes. We look at how women are talking about what was once a taboo subject – their right to basic sanitation.”

I’ve just renewed my contract with Elle for another year, so you can expect to see my byline pretty much in every issue in the coming months. And I’ve got some really interesting stories lined up, too, including another women-only series.

Now in Print

Regular readers might recognize this story, but here it is again if you missed it the first time in the Times. I felt a bit guilty about not contributing to household finances this month, so I sold it as a reprint to ABC Australia. Always a good business practice.

Where the roads are paved with plastic.

Now in Print

I realized I haven’t done this in quite a while! I have had a couple of things published here and there, but for some strange reason, I’ve been forgetting to post.

Ah well. Here’s my latest cover story Inside the Dream Mind for Brain World magazine. And for the New York Times, I wrote In South Delhi, a Home for Three Generations.

Now in Print: ABC News

My latest work is a feature for ABC News (Australia) on how the Commonwealth Games trash will be handled and what the wastepickers are getting (or not getting, to be accurate) out of it. Click here to read it.

Speaking of work on wastepickers, a piece I did earlier on the same topic has been selected as a finalist for the Developing Asia Journalism Awards. I’ve been invited to the three-day forum and the concluding awards ceremony in Tokyo, Japan, which I’ll be attending. It’ll be held in mid-November.

I’ve never been to Japan before, so I’m really excited. I’ve convinced Sam to join me for the ceremony so that we can celebrate and spend a nice weekend together in the city. Any tips on what we should do while there?

Now in Print

I love it when my pieces go up online (and aren’t restricted access), because then I can actually share them with you instead of promising copies (which I never get around to sending).

Anyway, the latest is for Motherland, a new magazine that just published its inaugural issue. My piece “Easy Riders: Women on the Move,” talks about the beloved Scooty.