Am I Proud Or Am I Sad?

Thanks to the organization where I work, I am also part of a non-government trade association & advocacy group for Software and Service Companies in India. As part of the Regional Council for this association, we interact with the Government. We have identified a number of initiatives to make our region the most attractive and advanced for the industry that we represent.

In the past 2 / 3 months, members of this Regional Council have met government representatives to chalk out plans of close co-operation between IT Industry and the government. We have participated in discussions with Ministers on getting students ready for the industry, enabling more business in the region, creation of jobs, improving security of the citizens, making our cities smarter and similar. In one such meeting, we were made aware of the next generation traffic management system that is being implemented. Amongst other things, this new system will ease traffic congestions and also further automate the tasks of identification of traffic violations, penalizing the people at fault, collection of fines etc.

The place in Bangalore where I live, I have heard, is identified to be developed as a “Model” block. The Storm Water Drains have been widened, footpaths re-laid, roads getting asphalted, smart garbage collection methodologies being practiced and a version of “next generation traffic management system” has been implemented.

We are at the fag end of our festival season here in India. Festivals to most of us means lots of food and creating memories with extended families. I met my co-brother in one of the recent festivals. He is from a different field - art and media. Conversations with him are very interesting – I always learn something new. And I do tell him about the happenings in our industry. We had a good conversation about the government / Industry partnership and the initiatives. I told him about the traffic management system being implemented and how IT industry is helping. We discussed about behavior of people – unless people know they are being watched and tracked, they flout rules. It’s just not enough to automate catching traffic violations and recording it, only to tell people when they are caught months later by a cop on the road to make them aware of all the violations that they have committed. Systems should make this process almost real time – people violate something, and they should immediately be notified of the violation and made known of the penalty that has been imposed. We agreed that this may make people behave in a more responsible way. I am a firm believer that both reward/recognition and punishments should be meted out in a timely manner. If they are delayed, the sting is lost! I am not a fan of awards being given posthumously ??.

Today is a Saturday. As is the habit, before going for a morning walk in the sprawling gardens of Lalbagh, I checked for emails / msgs. There was one msg which caught my attention. It was a SMS from Traffic Police that intimated me of a traffic violation that I supposedly had committed less than 24 hours ago!! For a few seconds I thought it was phishing. But the message did not have any links, it did not ask me to click anywhere. It asked me to go to a well-known government portal and pay the penalty within 7 days else…. pheww. I went to the government portal, I went to the link for traffic violations and I keyed in my car number and yes…it told me I had jumped a signal at 8:57AM near my place yesterday ( Oh yes, my wife had to reach her school at 9AM and she got ready only at 854AM!!!). It also said I can see supporting evidence…I clicked on that and there’s my black beauty in all her glory, caught in the act.

(Is this what they call “Law Of Attraction”? I discuss the subject couple of days ago and all those things happen to me! God of “Law Of Attraction” (if there is one)… this is not fair! I discuss and think about so many other things… why don’t all those things happen???)

Few seconds later I am confused. A part of me is very proud! A part of me is very sad! Proud of what we in the IT and Technology industry are doing and contributing to the society. Sad because it happened to me. So, am I proud or am I sad? ?Couple of decades ago, my friend and I were driving from Santa Clara, Ca to San Diego, Ca. We were caught by a cop for speeding. My friend told the cop that he was driving at the same speed that rest of the people were driving and asked why he caught only us. I very clearly remember what the cop said - ?“Son, when you go fishing, you don’t catch all the fishes, do you?” ?? ??

So, as long as I am not only one of the fishes and I am not the chosen Son of this smart camera that we in the Industry helped the police to deploy, I think I am feeling proud!