Identity, Alterity and Social Media: Coercing Silence

richard-rego_dharma-article_identiy_alterity-social-media-coercing-silenceDownload

Here is one of my articles published two years ago in the Journal of Dharma, Vol. 43, Issue 1 (January – March 2018), pp. 85-110.

Of if you want another link to the same article: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356452140_Design_and_Implementation_of_the_Management_System_of_College_Students%27_Sports_Scores_Based_on_PHP/references

And from here, you can go to the original link of the journal.

The Glory of Niagara Falls

This time, during my visit to the United States, I had a rare opportunity to visit the Niagara Falls. Oh, boy! That was stunning!

The Niagara Falls is located on the border between Canada and the USA. New York state is lucky to have this wonder of the world. About six hours drive from NYC

The water falls is the third tallest natural water fall in the world. Created by the great lakes Ontario, Michigan, Eerie, Lawrence etc, the fresh water feeds the Falls, and then creates the Niagara River.

On the first evening, we visited and went on ferries to, what is famously known as Maid of the Mist- you sail under the falls in an arch. The water Mist from the Falls, covers you. So you wear ponchos or raincoats. Those visitirs from Canadian side wear pink ponchos, and those from United States, blue, so that none crosses border! Wow! What a sight! It is about an hour’s experience.

The next morning, we visited -among other things- the Cave of the Winds. Here, you wear yellow ponchos, and get under the Falls – the stupendous, gorgeous stream falling from over 178 feet, and creating that immaculate white froth and mist! You are bathed in it irrespective of your desire, awaking the child and the spiritual in you.

Absolutely breathtaking. No more can I say!

IAJU Boston Assembly

This is a terrific forum where almost every Jesuit university and college of the world is represented by its officials and persons in-charge of Global Engagement.

After missing in the last three editions, this year was my chance. Thanks to my previous travels to the US, I had a ten year visa. Else my plight too would have been like the other 22 men and women from India who waited for the Godot and surrendered to their (US) fate at the very last moment when they didn’t get the visa.

From Karnataka, we are only four who have landed in Boston for the fourth Assembly of this august Assembly in August. Among the 300 plus delegates.

As usual, I have been visited by the jet lag very badly. I sleep at around 11pm and wake up by 1.30am, and keep dosing during the business sessions during the day! That’s my bring human.

The Assembly began on Wednesday 3rd August, and will go on till Saturday 7th. After that I will be launching the Boston or Messachusetts Chapter of the St Joseph’s University alumni on Sunday.

That would take me to Fordham University in New York and a little around followed by Georgetown University in Washington DC.

There’s so much more happening here. That’s for the next post!

Four Dreams is a film competition conducted by the Communication Committee of IAJU, of which I am a member.

KCET 2022C Results Today

The results of the Karnataka Common Entrance Test for students aspiring to join professional  institutions of Higher Education in Karnataka,  will be announced today on Saturday,  30 July 2022.

The KCET are meant only for Karnataka students. Students from other states, wanting to study in the State, need to apply for the Management Quota.

Over 2,00,000 students had sat the exam this year. They can avail their results from http://karresults.nic.in

ICSE Results to be Declared Today

ICSE students, get set, ready, go! If you are a 10th standard student studying in ICSE stream, your results will be declared soon.

Many students have been waiting for their results to register for 11th standard, a crucial phase in their life.

There you go.

Best of luck.

If things don’t go your way, don’t panic. There is always another way to do things – see if things have gone wrong in the other side or if you could have done things better from your side. Just that, keep your head cool and heart steady. You are more precious than an those numbers can say or do.

Karnataka PUC Results Announced

On 18 June, the Department of Pre-University College Education, Karnataka, has announced the results of the 12th standard exams held in April-May.

The results could be viewed on http://www.karresults.nic.in/slpuind.asp

Best of luck to all the students

Wilsy the stress-buster

Wilsy is very special. Like none else.

I have had dogs at home all my life. All of them country dogs. But they did they job of guarding our house and is us perfectly well. That was what dogs were fed for,  in our childhood,  in our villages. It is so, even now in rural India.  I loved our house dogs, and they loved me.  We played cricket, they fielded for me,  they guarded me when I was walking in the night through the forests, they guarded our crops from monkey-menace, and from thieves. And that was the best part

Now it is modern life in a cosmopolitan city.  Having a dog in the heart of the city is a luxury. Never mind,  we have.  Not one.  But three of them!

Earlier in 2014 to 2017, it was Wilsy and her cousin Ebo. Oh, what dogs! Affectionate to the bone, and fascinating to the DNA! Sometime in 2017, our Affectionate giant Ebo disappeared! To date, no news.

In the meantime, came a small breed Chotu. Quite stupid, but amazing! If I held his food high near me, he would jump up in the air vertically and revolving in the air, about a meter away from. With parallel, vertical distances between Chotu and his food, how could he get his food? Stupid. But that was cute Chotu. And he was given away immediately,  leaving behind Wilsy and mighty Ebo

After Ebo disappeared mysteriously, was brought in Alsy, a lab, in 2020. I didn’t want her. That’s why I called her Alsy, (lazy, in Konkani), a spoof. But when in July 2020, a car ran over over,  Alsy became everyone’s pet! Alsy survived mysteriously. Not once, twice more after this!

Now we have three of them: Wilsy, Alsy, and a fatty called Whitey, who has now learnt to walk a little bit, thanks to Alsy’s pranks. The fatty came in with his master in 2020 April,  when he must have been already about 7-8 years old. The one thing that keeps me away from him is that he stinks all the time. Forcibly over-fed!

Among these three,  Wilsy is the apple of everyone’s eyes. She is the princess. The elite. Dignity personified.

Wilsy knows she is pampered, and plays to the gallery! And the noble fuss she makes!!! She is the stress-buster. When things aren’t at their best, she is the one who brings a smile, playfulness on my face!

I am lucky, Wilsy is there. Even the college students are mesmerised by her. She is cute. Ever doubted why I blogged about this cutie?

Karnataka SSLC-2022 Results Today

If you are a student who has sat the Karnataka State Board SSLC exams in 2022 summer, today is your day! 12.30PM is your time!

Karnataka State Education Board will declare results of the exams held for SSLC (10th Standard) in Summer of 2022. Over 8,00,000 students had sat the exams, after a gap of two years of disruption related covid-19.

In the previous two years, the SSLC students were promoted depending on a the circumstance and according to the Government orders.

The results will be available on Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board website www.kseeb.kar.nic.in (www.kseeb.kar.nic.in) and also in https://karresults.nic.in (https://karresults.nic.in)

All the best, Students. Take it easy. If you think you deserve better, take some time, speak to someone senior who can listen to you and advise you on the next course of action, and then proceed. Mistakes do happen. Nothing to worry. Here is wishing you the best.Future beckons you!

Small Milestone in Research

Landmarks and milestones are an important feature in an individual’s life. They speak of the achievements an individual has had in one’s career.

Landmarks could be subjective ways of defining or understanding someone’s achievements. But that doesn’t diminish a person’s achievements. For example, in Test cricket, a 100 runs or a century are not very big achievement, though it does feature in big ways; in Test cricket if you score a double century (200+ runs) or a triple century or even a quadruple century (the West Indian Brian Lara is the only one in the entire world and history of Test cricket to score one!). In one-day cricket, a century or 100 runs are a big achievement for a batsman. Bigger than it is in Test cricket, since all that a batsman/batter gets is a maximum of 50 overs shared between the entire team. But if you score a double century in one-day cricket, that is the supreme! In Twenty-Twenty (T20) cricket, a century is a very rare event. If you scored 30 runs in the given 20 overs a side, you have created a landmark!

Similar is the case with research and citations. Citations are an important way to understand the quality of any publication (I mean publications in Clarivate/Web of Science or in Scopus indexed journals; not the unscientific UGC-CARE list or the so-called ‘peer reviewed’ journals, which actually are predatory journals).

Scientists working in sciences have a huge advantage in publications and citations. They have about 10,000 journals indexed in Clarivate list, against the 3000-plus journals in social sciences. It means there is so much of competition against the very low availability.

I have published a few articles in Clarivate and Scopus-indexed journals. One of them, published in 2018, “Changing forms and platforms of misogyny: Sexual harassment of women journalists on twitter” by Media Watch journal [9 (3), 472-85, 2018] has done the best job for me and for researchers around the world: today it has reached 25 citations. That is what makes me feel good about it. With this, the total number of citations to all my articles has gone up to 30, which is a huge landmark given the nature of research! After all, not everybody reads research, not everybody cites quality research, not everybody subscribes to it! A time to pat my own back, though a bit childish!

Karnataka 2nd PUC Exams Announced

The Karnataka Department of Pre-University Education (PUC or 12th Standard, or XII or PDC – Pre-Degree University) final exams have been announced. The exams begin 22 April and will come to an end on 18 May 2022.

The exams begin with Business Studies paper and end with Hindi, for those who have opted for these.

Here is wishing all our students hard work and success in their forthcoming exams.

Thank you IIAS

Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), is a premier Institute of research in Social Sciences in the county. It provides a rare opportunity for full-time scholars and faculty, in service who can’t avail two years leave for research, to take some time off their busy schedules and immerse themselves in some serious research.

It was in 2017 that I applied for such ca prestigious program called Associateship. Associateship is a three year research program for in-service faculty in Social Sciences and Humanities who can’t afford to get a continuous stretch of two years to set apart for research.

Instead, teaching faculty from these streams could avail one month per year for years for research.

After my research proposal was approved in 2017, I started attending IIAS from May 2018 for research. From then on, my research network has expanded, and have a better idea of what and how they go about. The article produced and published during that spell, Changing Forms and Platforms of Misogyny: Sexual Harassment of Indian Women Journalists on Twitter has been cited 24 times by various international scholars.

My second spell was in May 2019. Rather uneventful stint. The article on WhatsApp and social relationships among friends and family which was fine tuned during this spell somehow didn’t cut much ice.

Though I finalised my third stint at Shimla IIAS for May 2020, Coronavirus came on the way. The next year, too, wasn’t any kinder. Besides, the load of admissions and our topsy-turvyed academic calendar spoilt my plans.

It was this time Ms Shashikala, the office staff for recruiting Associates, who convinced me about attending this March , though the month isn’t the best month to be in Shimla.

Initiatially, the temperature was -2 degrees, but post-Holi, it soared to 9 to 22 degrees. In the meantime, I got into the groove. One of the things I am extremely happy about is my participation in discussions on presentations. So much so, every Chair was very keen to give me a chance even when others raised their hands. They valued my contribution.

I researched on interrelationships in Girish Kasaravalli’s film Dweepa. Using Victor Perkins’ Textual Analysis I examined it. Though I wasn’t too confident about how my co-researchers would take it, I was mighty excited to see their excitement about my analysis.

I am grateful to our provincial superior for his support. In this regard, I confess, the Society has been very supportive of my academic endeavours.