The mascot of Indian roads. (The driver cribbed about Uber underpaying them.)
I once rode an auto-rickshaw with a "Yumraj is back" sticker on its front windscreen. (Yumraj is the Hindu God of death.)
Remote
Rohini Lakshané
@rohini@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Interdisciplinary research, tech policy, gender, access to knowledge, writing, and teaching. Engineer, Wikimedian, polyglot. Gaia is god.
Personal views. "The personal is political."
📍 India
IPA transcription of my name: roːɦiɳiː ləkʂəɳeː
My name in the Devanagari script: रोहिणी लक्षणे
Pronouns: she/ her
Display picture: Illustration created by Upasana Agarwal for the book 31 Fantastic Adventures in Science.
874 Followers
981 Following
32 Posts
Joined November 03, 2019
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18 years. Proud Wikimedian. Sharing a snapshot of my on-wiki and off-wiki contributions to the knowledge commons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rohini
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rohini/Wiki_things
On another note, some of you have figured that I haven't attended in-person events in the past few years. Requesting kindred spirits to keep directly in touch.
#Wikipedia #Openness #KnowledgeCommons #OpenKnowledge #PolyglotDiaries #Wikiversary #Wikimedia
I happened to walk past the office of a matrimonial/ matchmaking bureau today. The sign outside read that they are specialists in "divorce" and "delayed marriage." I know what that actually means but it's still hilarious.
Thread: One "anti-AI" dude stopped talking with me because I said accountability shouldn't be primarily directed at disadvantaged individuals with low resources who use LLMs because they have no support from the family, society, employer, or state. Instead, these technologies should be regulated, dismantled, or modified. He said that the use of LLM-powered toolsets by disabled persons was a "red line" for him, even if such use was occasional, limited, and carried "marginal good" for the user.+
CJP and Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation on Wikipedia's front page today.
Replying to
I cannot fully read or write five of the scripts in the screenshots in my previous post. I use Google Inputs Tools to type in Latin characters and TTS to read the text back to me.
Useful advice on my bag of tortilla chips. Applies to everything from labour exploitation to sh*tty relationships.
It's somewhat challenging to explain to non-Indians that Stalin is the real name of a sitting Chief Minister and we have real persons named Che. (See my previous post for context.) I am acquainted with one Stalinjeet whose name literally means 'Victory of Stalin.'
An Indian court has rolled out its AI policy prohibiting the use of LLMs in judicial decisions citing risks of bias and overreliance. Good to see this.
The Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity for the most difficult writing I have ever done—a longform article on image-based abuse for the first year of my fellowship at FactorDaily. https://factordaily.com/the-crying-shame-of-image-based-abuse/
My LinkedIn post about the award: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7397321012578643968/
This isn't a 'domestic help' crisis. This is an 'adults who can't clean and manage their own homes' crisis. "Even garbage is piling up!"
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/house-help-crisis-grips-gurugram-as-bengal-migrants-return-home-to-vote-11406863
If you are in #Mysore on April 7, this is a really cool talk to attend in a really cool campus. I have visited some of these temples and got a demonstration of the #astronomy and time-keeping architecture and apparatus.
What happens when a train of thought derails? Does one salvage the train wreck and get it back on track?
Did the dear leader really hint in Parliament that a lockdown-like situation is coming thanks to the energy crisis and war? I don't know how to cook on a coal or firewood stove. I don't even know where to get coal or firewood from.
Not to make light of the ongoing war but whenever I hear or read 'Strait of Hormuz', I want to believe that Hormuz is the name of a cantankerous old Parsi bawa in Bombay.
I just read the Karnataka government's "draft policy for responsible digital use among students" (for minors). The ex-child in me is appalled. So is the adult.
(The deadline for submissions in response to this draft, I believe, is April 18.)
Good people of the fediverse, what is a good collaborative task-list app for a neurodivergent team (dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, and autism)?
Preferably a free one. Preferably no LLM integration. No Meta products.
Replying to
Very gutted. I have attended every Rightscon since 2016, either online or in person. This is a in-the-face reminder of the current condition. We cannot safely hold even a convening.
This young lawyer's story is incredible. I hope someone makes a movie out of it and gives her lots of money in royalty. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMxoyD_zJOC/
Replying to
These 18 years don't include roughly 1.5 years spent as a Wiki vandal.
This is hilarious. Sadly, it's paywalled.
https://medium.com/funny-inc/i-read-my-ai-girlfriends-diary-8270d41c9bb2
Sharing this song of hope I discovered recently because there is panic and doom in the feed:
Edit: I translated it to English for the benefit of those who don't understand Hindi.
https://aarohini.medium.com/english-translation-of-aabad-by-shashwat-bulusu-428b48672646
If it's WW3, we will have no money and become sad. Then, we can call it 'The Great Depression.'
Replying to
@h3artbl33d@exquisite.social I was supposed to speak in two sessions in the main agenda. It's demoralising in every way.