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Welcome!
Mridu Khullar, 26, is a freelance journalist from New Delhi, India.
She has lived and worked in Asia and Africa, and is currently a
Visiting Scholar at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Mridu has worked with Time, Glamour, Marie Claire, Elle, Ms., Self,
Parade.com, Women's eNews, US Airways, The Women's International Perspective, and Writer's Digest, among others. She has also been a contributor to the books Chicken Soup for the Pre-Teen Soul II and Voices of Alcoholism.
For rates, reprints and assignments, please contact her here.
To read what her readers write in to say each week, click
here.
Recent Features:
| Have
They Forgotten the Kama Sutra? |
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In
rapidly modernizing India, the generation gap has become a gaping
abyss. More and more young people, especially women, are fumbling for
reliable information about sexual choices and contraceptive methods,
since pre-marital sex still is considered taboo.
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| Take
It Slower (Self, November 2008) |
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Forget multitasking. The key to
a joyful life lies in savoring the moment.
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| Going Boldly Into That Good Night
(Spirituality & Health, Sep/Oct 2008) |
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A
large fish. An oversized Coca Cola bottle. A hammer. A mobile phone. A
shoe.
They could be art exhibits in a gallery in Paris. Instead, they're
coffins. Handmade, very detailed, and created to carry a deceased
Ghanaian into his afterlife.
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Women in Mumbai Avoid Harassment on the
"Ladies' Special" (The Women's International Perspective, September
2008)
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The Ladies Special is a welcome
relief. Introduced in 1992, the trains run on Mumbai's Western and
Central Railway lines. While there are ladies-only compartments in
other trains as well, these trains are exclusively for female
travelers. The Churchgate to Virar Ladies Special was the first to run
the line and was the first of its kind in India.
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| Discovering Ghana (ELLE, September 2008) |
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Africa has a reputation and for
good reason. It is relatively unsafe, especially for a single woman,
things are not organized, there is corruption and disease, and basic
amenities (regarded as luxuries) are expensive.
But
Africa is also misunderstood.
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The Rise of Medical Tourism (The WIP,
September 2008)
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According to the National
Coalition of Health Care in America, in 2007, total national health
expenditures were expected to rise 6.9 percent—twice the rate
of inflation. Healthcare spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on
national defense. And although 47 million Americans are uninsured, the
United States spends more on healthcare than other industrialized
nations.
It is no wonder then that scores of American citizens are heading off
to foreign shores for their healthcare needs. |
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| Indian
Couples Seek Security in Modern Marriages (The WIP, August 2008) |
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Couples
in India are finally figuring out that hours of horoscope-matching
sessions followed by measures to correct planetary positions make not a
good marriage. Urban educated twenty-somethings of today are ditching
the priest's grass mat and heading to the counselor's leather couch. |
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| "I
Escaped From Tibet" (Orato.com, August 2008) |
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(By Dakpa, as
told to Mridu Khullar)
My name is Dakpa. I’m 24 years old. I was born in Thepo, in
the Amdo province of Tibet in 1984. I’m a Tibetan monk and a
refugee. This is my story. |
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| Pride Meets Prejudice (ELLE,
August 2008) |
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The law labels them criminals.
Society labels them different, morally corrupt, and sometimes even
mentally ill. Friends and family often label them a disgrace. But in
June this year, homosexuals in four cities came together and labelled
themselves proud.
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| Tibetans Find Power in Words (The Women's
International Perspective, August 5, 2008) |
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With
the 2008 Olympics in China beginning this week, protests from the
Tibetan refugee community in India are intensifying. But since the
Tibetan spiritual leader—the 14th Dalai
Lama—discourages Tibetans from picking up arms, a small but
powerful segment of Tibetans have picked up another
weapon—their pens.
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| The
Big Fat Lie of My Big Fat Indian Wedding (Orato.com, July 23, 2008) |
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My
wedding and marriage, like any Indian girl's wedding and marriage, were
constant topics of discussion. At 10, I'd get giddy and excited at
every mention of it; at 15, I'd blush. By the time I was 20, I had
taken to yawning. It wasn't that I was no longer excited about the idea
of finding a life partner. I had simply realized by then that
everything an Indian girl is promised about her wedding and consequent
marriage is a big fat
lie. |
More
Features...
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