Interview with Tyfone

I interviewed with a company called Tyfone today for the position of a Technical Director. Tyfone is a small startup and they wanted somebody who could lead the development efforts for a product they are building for the mobile industry. The interview went quite well and they ended up offering me the job! The pay was very, very low but they threw in a bunch of stock options to sweeten the deal. The work sounded pretty interesting to me, but I had a lot to consider before I accepted the offer. The people I spoke to were nice and seemed reasonably knowledgeable.

Going to and from the interview by auto, I was quite taken aback by the number of people who always appeared to have something to do or somewhere to go. The sidewalks are always crowded and there is no "rush hour" in traffic. The traffic is stop-and-go for almost 12 hours a day (8am to 8pm), in almost every major road in Bangalore. And, everybody accepts it as a fact of life. There are traffic lights almost everywhere, but not all of them are working most of the time, so there will be a policeman directing traffic.

Let me highlight one positive and one negative about Indian traffic. First, the positive. At almost every major traffic signal, there will be a digital display that shows the amount of time remaining for the signal to change to green. So, people (car, auto, bus, bike, etc.) turn off their engines till 5-10 seconds before the light turns green. In the long run, this will definitely result in significant fuel conservation, reduction in pollution and longer life for the engines.

The negative? Actually, there are quite a few, as you might imagine. Invariably, people will get a headstart on the signal, so they will cross the intersection when there's still 3-4 seconds for the light to turn green. At the same time, people who had the green signal till then (cross traffic) will not stop when the light turns red. They will continue crossing the intersection 3-4 seconds after the light turns red. Obviously, this can result in grid lock in the middle and at worst, cause a serious accident, especially when you consider that the vehicles involved can be as diverse in size as huge lorry/truck and a small moped (mini motorbike). At night, people will invariably ignore the lights completely and depend on coordination with other vehicles to get through intersections. Most lorry/bus drivers are egomaniacs with very poor road sense, so they'll drive rashly in narrow roads. In theory, the bigger the vehicle you drive, the more responsibility that is on you to drive safely. But, that is just what it is...theory! In practice, the bigger the vehicle you drive, the more other people had better watch out for their own lives!