This week marked the start of my Leadership-in-Action project at eGovernments Foundation in Bangalore, and it was also a return. I had not been to India in eight years. Arriving to do professional work in a country I know through family, language, and memory gave the week an emotional weight I had not fully anticipated. I speak Tamil and grew up immersed in Indian culture, but I quickly realized that familiarity is not the same as understanding. I was coming back as a different person, and as someone who was about to ask others to explain their work to me.

My focus this week was orientation. I learned how eGov operates as a non-profit that partners with governments, civil society, and multilateral organizations to expand access to public services through Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). I began to understand DIGIT, the open-source platform that powers urban services in several Indian states, and eGov's role as a founding partner of the National AI Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cities, which is the connection that first drew me to this placement. My manager, Kriti Mittal, helped me see where my project could fit within work that was already underway.

My original proposal started from a gap I had identified: states are beginning to use AI in decisions that shape the lives of marginalized communities, yet the NGOs and community organizations that serve those communities are often missing from the conversation. This week, I tested that framing against what I was actually seeing inside the organization. Some of it held up, and some of it was more complicated than I had imagined. I also reread my own commitment not to arrive with answers. Before introducing AI into any conversation, I wanted to understand the problems people were actually working on.

The tangible outcome of this week was not a deliverable but a clearer starting point: a working understanding of eGov's priorities and a set of questions to guide the research ahead. I also committed to an approach I would carry through the rest of the project, which was to ask about challenges and goals first and to treat technology as one possible tool among many.

The Laidlaw attribute most visible this week was empathy and active listening. It was tested early, because listening is difficult when you are eager to prove yourself. Curiosity and humility were closely connected to it. The people around me had years of experience in a field I was only beginning to learn, and the most useful thing I could do was ask good questions and pay attention to the answers.

Next week, I will work with my supervisor to sharpen the focus of the project and begin building the subject knowledge I need to contribute something useful.