Big brother, the tourist attraction

By Abhijit Menon-Sen <>

Every morning, children stream past our house in both directions on their way to school. There are the nearly grown-up, very self-conscious young ladies on the way to the inter-college, dressed in blue and white with neatly plaited and be-ribboned hair. There are groups of brown-and-white children, always squabbling over some snack. There are tiny red-and-blue primary school kids who drift past like tumbleweed—so easily distracted that it's a marvel that they ever make it to school.

And then there are the troublemakers, the wretched blue-and-brown boys who derive entertainment from pinching the valve-caps off our car tyres, or snapping off the occasional windshield wiper. We stuck a webcam in the window overlooking the car to keep an eye on these miscreants. It worked pretty well. A few of the smaller children still write their names on the windows when the car is dusty, but we haven't lost any more valve caps.

Webcam view of car through window

But now the webcam has become a local attraction, and we hear children of every colour walking past talking about the “CCTV”, bringing their friends around to point it out, and waving or posing (or dancing!) for the camera. A blue-and-white pair—not yet as serious as their elder sisters–recently made faces at it and ran away horrified but giggling when I replied with a cheerful “Hi”.

Ubiquitous surveillance? What fun!