Khushi Khurana
Some content on this site is still being finished — please check back soon, or email khushi@monica.in with any questions. Some content on this site is still being finished — please check back soon, or email khushi@monica.in with any questions.

Words, then and now

Writing

Journalism is where I learned to notice things properly. Before that, there was just a teenager with a WordPress blog. Some of it still holds up.

Reporting

Four years of ground reporting and documentary work — TheWire, UNDP, Outlook Traveller, and more. Full record →

Earlier days

A few short pieces from years ago, kept as they were.

"Hoping" lanterns — 2017

It's time we should all learn to stop wishing and start hoping. Hoping for the best, not wishing for it. Wishes need magic lamps. I don't want to rub a few hundred lamps and wait to find the one. I'd rather aim and work and hope than sit and wait and wish.

Then, we grew up. — 2017

We were less afraid. When we were little we were less afraid of falling. Not because we had a faith system or anything but because we didn't care. We were carefree and sometimes careless too. Curiosity was our priority. Then we grew up, we learned new things, learned to fear, learned to differentiate, learned to be careful etc. The purpose of learning all of this was to help ourselves, keep us intact. But look at us, all of us. We're afraid of everything and yet we fall for everything. We care so much but we aren't careful at all. We're not carefree but we're all careless. Curiosity? Is it even a real thing any more?

Home Love — 2018

Some people feel like home and some places feel like love. Time is an artificial concept and the more I think about it, I realize how this thought makes most things unreal. Except in some spaces where we stop measuring and we live. And these spaces are only people, people who feel like home. And then there are spaces where we do measure but we change the unit. We measure moments but not in seconds. We measure through feeling. They are places that feel like love.

What if? — 2017

What if it is meant to be? What if it was supposed to happen? What if life actually returned it to you? What if it was meant to make you happy? What if your heart had to break? What if it was supposed to be made in a different way so it had to be shattered? What if it does come back? But what if it isn't? Is it worth the pain? Maybe it is.

It's just a cliché — 2017

Everything gets better with time, it does. I read something scribbled on a friend's notebook once which said; when you get your heart broken, to you it's the end of the world, but to the world it's the end of just another story. You get yourself hurt and it feels like this is it, but it does get better. You just have to pick yourself up. We're all capable of doing that but we wait for someone else to do it for us. No one else will do that. You have to do it and you can and you will and no it's not a sad truth. It's just the truth.