Diary of a doctoral student Archive
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Making subjectivity visible: Sections from my dissertation
Posted on December 31, 2011 | 2 CommentsMy pot belly, being 'rosy complexioned' and other stories from the field. I wrote these pieces in a course on ‘creative non-fiction’ and included them in the dissertation to provide my readers a break from the formal monotony. Sadly, most people remember sections of this from the dissertation, and little else. Such is the life of a doctoral student. -
The art & craft of academic writing: Interviews & talks
Posted on December 9, 2011 | No CommentsUnlike a lot of people, writing does not come to me naturally. It has been a slow and difficult learning process, and I had to contend with massive writing project as I started the dissertation. As it turned out, writing the dissertation was fun, but not always. It took me an year and a half to write the dissertation after the fieldwork, and in the process, it helped me to know what other writers had gone through. A lot of that advice came from the committee and from my peers at the University, and some of it came from webcasts on... -
Mind-maps for organising the layout of a chapter, article or dissertation
Posted on November 17, 2011 | No CommentsMind maps can help us contend with different ways of organizing the layout of chapters, books or articles when we are confronted with different way of organizing it. -
The place of originality in academic writing
Posted on September 16, 2010 | No CommentsAn article questioning how original a work could be in social sciences, what originality is, and if originality is the real mark of useful contribution. -
Publish and perish
Posted on August 29, 2010 | No CommentsI discovered that the papers that I had written with a lot of hard work were cited only once in the last four years. A note on the academic peril of working hard in writing what will probably be never read by any one. To publish is to perish. Read on. -
Reflections of a retiring TA
Posted on December 21, 2009 | No CommentsThe subtle power of the student is much more than the institutionalized power of the Teaching Assistant, I claim. -
A soldier turning hair-stylist
Posted on November 28, 2009 | No CommentsMy hair-stylist this time was a veteran soldier who had just returned from the war in Afghanistan. It was his fourth month at the hair-styling school and he was learning his skill with volunteer-customers like me who went there for low-cost haircuts. Learning that I was an Indian he said, “I was near there man”, and he told me about his experiences in Afghanistan as he washed my hair preparing it for the job. Our chat was mainly about big guns. I was in the areas bordering Pakistan and we often had issues with Pakistani soldiers, he said. “Did that... -
Friendships and “research methods”
Posted on September 17, 2009 | No CommentsWith one's career at stake, we tend to do what is safe, rather than pursue what we feel is the right thing to do. Friendships helped me push these boundaries into doing the kind of research I really wanted to do. -
History in the future
Posted on September 14, 2009 | No CommentsThe explosion of digital information about all aspects of our lives, the places we live in, etc. will radically transform the way we write history in the future. Read on. -
I cared because I did not care
Posted on August 7, 2009 | 1 CommentRumblings of an ex-activist in his early thirties Why have I ceased to care about the world? Why is my commitment vanishing? Fifteen years ago if I saw blind person struggling to cross the road, I would jump off my bicycle to help him cross, and make a mental note on how I will change public transport. Now I watch my watch and glide away hoping someone will do my job for me. I wonder today if I cared then since I did not have a care in the world. Caring parents, carefree friends and a careless school set the...
