Besides thousands of human eyes that may or may not watch us daily, out there are thousands of artificial eyes fixed all around the place which do catch a glimpse of us as we pass within their horizons. Yes, these eyes are the innumerable cameras, hidden or obvious, that are laid everywhere in a network to see and record the scene as it unfolds. The people observed as they walk, run, rest or do any activity. These eyes relay the live images to a centralized station to be seen on monitors, few or many, by staff professionally trained to observe the movements and sense anything that may dubious or dangerous. Sometimes if need be, rewind the recorded stills/ videos at a later period to scrutinise anything fishy.
The development in the camera technology has taken an enormous leap in last few decades. Be it the biggest ones that see towards or from the space, be it the simpler closed circuit ones that catches our daily activities, be it the billions of them laden in the smart phones, be it the one fixed in front of various devices that traverse the body either through natural orifices or various ports created to peep or operate onto ones organs, be it the extra eyes rendered for security purposes or be it installed on the body of the security personnel for defining their actions, be it on the headgear of the sports goers who record their thrills as they unfold or be it the micro spy cameras used in elite security purposes. Right from your home, to a small vendor, to the street, to a shopping mall, to an intersection, at crowded places (metro stations, airports, railway hubs) to churches and mosques, in a room it is almost 100% that you will be eyed. You name anything the camera/s may be part and parcel of that event/activity.
Their use has also been utilized by a common man in his day to day life. Be it home where it is becoming a norm now to install CCTV and see for oneself if anyone known/unknown knocks at your door or jumps your wall. Be it in an office where employer monitors his employees’ activities. The shop owners have them and have benefitted many a time to look at their clientele as well as the salesmen. Someone has been caught accepting a bribe or stealing something. Some cameras also have exposed the unexpected, be it the fist fight in a parliament, an odd moment in a beauty pageant, a shoplifters antics, the roadside aberrations done by the motorists or the roaring waves after a Tsunami or the dance in the sky by comets, the list is unending.
With the world turning controversial in its policies and people ugly in their intentions the administration needs to have mechanisms of observing the world and people for any obvious mischief. Cameras have become the eyes and ears of the administrative machinery, with them being installed at every nook and corner. They have solved many a crime, theft, ill intention or a bad plot. Had it not been to these artificial eyes we would have had disasters in many a places. These cameras may be hidden, concealed deliberately or obvious to the general public. And the concealed ones have brought many a bad deals or bad people to the fore. They have helped in reducing the theft quota by a huge margin as well as help in getting the thieves in the police net. Be it a bank robbery or a ATM fraud, people have been caught red handed. Be it the trouble shooters or the wrong headed ones, they have been nabbed before or after they committed a horrific crime.
One may get influenced and thus aware by these gadgets and do away with many a wrongs, but we as believers have to remember that there is someone far bigger and nearer than any of the cameras available. We all should remember that God Almighty whose vision is far above the maximum megabytes that any artificial camera has, watches us all the time and at all the places. No charging or change of batteries needed in HIS case. HE up there notices all of us even if we hide ourselves under a straw or immerse ourselves deep in the ocean or bury ourselves under a ton or keep ourselves hidden by a thick wall.
That unique power who made this universe and kept us on this planet (out of so many) is watching us all. Instead of the hidden cameras that makes us to restrain and restrict from doing some bad or unwanted, we should be scared of HIM observing us both in our physical actions as well as our mental thoughts which no camera has the capability of recording. If only we believed in the supreme camera of His we would never need these artificial ones to spy on us.
(Dr Muzafar Maqsood Wani is consultant Nephrologist,SKIMS, Soura.)