Tag-Archive for ◊ elle ◊

10 Jun 2010 Now in Print: Elle
Author: Mridu Khullar Relph |  Category: Now in Print  | Tags:  | 3 Comments

Just another quick interruption in your day. Don’t mind me, I’m being super productive this month.

My piece, “This Time It’s Female” appears in this month’s issue of Elle, India. I write about how, for centuries, the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata have been told from a male perspective, and how a new generation of modern feminist women are changing that.

The stories fascinated me with their entertaining twists and turns, the melodrama and the complex characters. But even as a child, it occurred to me that while the men seemed well-portrayed in both the epics, the motivations and the thoughts of the women weren’t as readily available. What went through Sita’s mind as she went through trial after trial? Why didn’t her sister Urmila accompany her husband, too? Did Gandhari ever want to throw off that blindfold that she had so willingly taken?

Half of each of these stories has seemed to be missing. Until now. In the last five years, an overwhelming number of women are questioning the epics and the female role in them. Twenty years after I first started questioning, I’m beginning to find some answers.

As always, this piece isn’t online, but the issue is now out on stands.

15 Dec 2009 Query: ELLE
Author: Mridu Khullar Relph |  Category: Samples  | Tags:  | 2 Comments

As I’ve mentioned before, I got my start in journalism with ELLE’s Indian edition, and have continued writing for them over the years. I have a relationship with several of the editors at the publication, and my queries are often quick, personal notes, sometimes just a line or two.

Because I understand this publication intimately, I went ahead and did my reporting as well as asked a photographer to accompany me even before we had the assignment. Since we went as a team, you’ll see that I pitch this piece using a “we.” I don’t mention it here, because the editor is no doubt aware of it, but it was the first gay pride parade to be held in several cities.

The query took about ten minutes to write.

**

Dear X,

Hope this finds you well. I’m writing because I’m sure you’ve heard of the Gay Pride Parades that took place around the country yesterday in Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore, and I wanted to offer you a story on the parade as well as the issues surrounding the gay and lesbian communities in India.

I was at the parade yesterday with photographer BK, who flew here from Sri Lanka. We spoke to several activists and straight people who were attending the parade, and thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about homosexuality in India. Despite being part of a gay pride parade, it struck us that several people who had come to stand in solidarity with gay people were quite homophobic (one straight student told us he had dressed in his shabbiest clothes so that he wouldn’t get hit on by gay men.)

In addition to the parade itself, I think the article could focus on the problems that the gay community faces (forced marriages, violence, alarming rates of suicide) and solutions (the arts are a huge outlet when it comes to expression of freedom in the community). It would also take a look at the class factor: while middle-class and upper-class homosexuals have been able to gain a level of acceptance in their communities, for the majority of homosexuals in India, it still seems like an impossible dream. Indeed, many people at the parade wore masks to cloak their identities and several refused to speak to the media for fear of repercussions.

I think the gay pride parade has brought the issues of the homosexual community into the spotlight, and hence this would be a very timely piece in terms of talking about the achievements made and how much more there is to do. A Supreme Court judgment on the law against homosexuality is due in the next couple of days and I’ll make a note of that ruling as well.

Let me know if you agree. I can have the article written in the next ten days so that it can be published in a timely manner. Professional photographs by BK are available.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best,
Mridu

**

The published piece: Pride Meets Prejudice

10 Dec 2009 Now in Print
Author: Mridu Khullar Relph |  Category: Now in Print  | Tags: ,  | 2 Comments

There’s a lot that’s been written about the Bhopal gas tragedy over the last week. Add me to the list of journalists who had something to say.

My story on the events that unfolded and what has happened in the 25 years since is in the December 2009 issue of Elle magazine (India). Don’t forget to check out photojournalist Alex Masi’s incredible photos that accompany my work. (You can also see some of them here on Time.com.)

02 Dec 2009 On the Masthead
Author: Mridu Khullar Relph |  Category: Now in Print  | Tags: ,  | 10 Comments

I talked a bit last week about the feast or famine syndrome of freelancing. I was referring specifically to the amount of work, but the same tends to apply to paychecks as well. When they come through, they come through at once. When they don’t, they don’t.

Most professional journalists work with the goal in mind to have as many regular clients as possible, who they can depend on for regular work, say a feature a month or week (depending on the frequency of publication). Once you’ve reached that step, the next is to start getting regular paychecks, in the form of either monthly retainers (where the client pays you a set amount per month or week for a certain number of pieces) or the prestigious Contributing Editor position (called the Contributing Writer position in India) where you get not only a regular paycheck (and work), but a slot on the masthead, invites to the editorial meetings if you’re keen on it, and typically a choice of stories you want to cover.

I am very pleased and excited to tell you that the Editor-in-Chief of the Indian edition of Elle magazine, with which I got started on the path of journalism, offered me a Contributing Writer position last week and I have accepted. I write for them pretty much every month anyway, so little changes in that department, but I’m interested in the future of the magazine and hence have decided to participate in edit meetings and the like now and again. The monthly paycheck and raise can’t possibly hurt either.

Starting next month, look for me on the masthead!

18 Aug 2009 Now in Print
Author: Mridu Khullar Relph |  Category: Now in Print  | Tags: , ,  | 2 Comments

I didn’t realize this when I posted earlier, but apparently, I have two articles in this month’s issue of Elle magazine (Indian edition).

My feature article “Panties and Principles” discusses moral policing, how not much has changed over the last ten years, and why it’s not just the “moral police” that’s doing this policing.

In January this year, Hindu activists attacked women in a Mangalore pub. An outcry followed, the Pink Chaddi campaign gained popularity around the world, and urban men and women vowed to fight against such violence. But who is really doing the moral policing, asks Mridu Khullar.

I also wrote on the latest trend in arranged marriages for Time.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1916150,00.html

12 Aug 2009 Now in Print
Author: Mridu Khullar Relph |  Category: Now in Print  | Tags: , ,  | 10 Comments

For the August issue of Elle’s Indian edition, I write about turning 25. The editor says in her Editor’s note:

In this month’s special feature, ‘The Turning Point ’, we invited six writers to share their milestone moments. What they all had in common was that leap of faith, that bold decision, albeit one that had been brewing in their minds for a while, which led them to achieve the results they wanted.

–

In the August 16-31 issue of The Caravan, check out my opinion piece “We Don’t Need No Men,” on how Indian women are traveling solo and very happily so. It was inspired by this blog entry on my experiences in Surat. My favorite part of the piece (and still one of my favorite stories) is this:

After being frisked three times while flying from New Delhi to San Francisco, the journalist in me had finally had it. As part of an assignment two months later, I met a security official at the San Francisco International Airport and asked him straight out: “Why do they always frisk me? Do I look criminal? Oh, it’s my skin color, isn’t it?”

“No, no,” the officer hastily explained, not willing to appear racist. “It’s not your skin color. It’s because you’re a woman traveling alone. Single women are typically marked out for checking.”

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