Rohini Lakshané

rohini@mastodon.social

Interdisciplinary research, tech policy, gender, access to knowledge, writing, and teaching. Engineer, Wikimedian, polyglot. Gaia is god. Personal views. "The personal is political."📍 IndiaIPA transcription of my name: roːɦiɳiː ləkʂəɳeːMy name in the Devanagari script: रोहिणी लक्षणेPronouns: she/ herDisplay picture: Illustration created by Upasana Agarwal for the book 31 Fantastic Adventures in Science. <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/NoBridge" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#NoBridge</a>

Posts

Post #4249416
The mascot of Indian roads. (The driver cribbed about Uber underpaying them.) I once rode an auto-rickshaw with a &quot;Yumraj is back&quot; sticker on its front windscreen. (Yumraj is the Hindu God of death.)
Post #4249415
CJP and Dharmendra Pradhan&#39;s resignation on Wikipedia&#39;s front page today.
Post #4249414
I happened to walk past the office of a matrimonial/ matchmaking bureau today. The sign outside read that they are specialists in &quot;divorce&quot; and &quot;delayed marriage.&quot; I know what that actually means but it&#39;s still hilarious.
Post #4249413
Thread: One &quot;anti-AI&quot; dude stopped talking with me because I said accountability shouldn&#39;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 &quot;red line&quot; for him, even if such use was occasional, limited,...
Post #4134408
A part of today's handiwork. I wrote these structured data captions and descriptions on the Wikimedia Commons in eight languages. #PolyglotDiaries #openness #openknowledge
Post #2076350
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
Post #1791057
What a setback this is for the digital civil society, the community, and the movement! And for those trying to bring these gatherings to the Global Majority world.
Post #1102591
It&#39;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 &#39;Victory of Stalin.&#39;
Post #1026428
This young lawyer&#39;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/
Post #1008884
Not to make light of the ongoing war but whenever I hear or read &#39;Strait of Hormuz&#39;, I want to believe that Hormuz is the name of a cantankerous old Parsi bawa in Bombay.
Post #1008883
I just read the Karnataka government&#39;s &quot;draft policy for responsible digital use among students&quot; (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.) https://hfwcom.karnataka.gov.in/uploads/Draft%20Policy%20for%20Responsible%20Digital%20Use%20among%20Students_1773213925.pdf
Post #1008882
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. #Mysuru
Post #1008880
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. https://www.medianama.com/2026/04/223-gujarat-hc-releases-ai-policy-barring-court-decisions-reasoning-orders/ #AI #AIbias #LLM #judicialbias
Post #957707
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. #neurodivergence #productivity #lazyweb #help
Post #881845
Did the dear leader really hint in Parliament that a lockdown-like situation is coming thanks to the energy crisis and war? I don&#39;t know how to cook on a coal or firewood stove. I don&#39;t even know where to get coal or firewood from.
Post #881844
If it&#39;s WW3, we will have no money and become sad. Then, we can call it &#39;The Great Depression.&#39;
Post #881843
Sharing this song of hope I discovered recently because there is panic and doom in the feed: https://youtu.be/sGKX5jDFkA8 Edit: I translated it to English for the benefit of those who don&#39;t understand Hindi. https://aarohini.medium.com/english-translation-of-aabad-by-shashwat-bulusu-428b48672646 #translation #hope #Hindi
Post #881842
Useful advice on my bag of tortilla chips. Applies to everything from labour exploitation to sh*tty relationships.
Post #881841
This is hilarious. Sadly, it&#39;s paywalled. https://medium.com/funny-inc/i-read-my-ai-girlfriends-diary-8270d41c9bb2 #AI #aigirlfriend #companionchatbots
Post #881840
What happens when a train of thought derails? Does one salvage the train wreck and get it back on track?
Post #788036
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/ #LMA2025