The universe moves on , like clockwork

 

The much hyped celestial event, the super blue blood moon, occurred precisely at the time astronomers predicted. The moon was cutoff a little, then glowed an eerie orangish-red. It was weird watching it personally, this is only the first time in my life I have seen this kind of a lunar eclipse. And perhaps the last time too.

It was nice reading about the enthusiasm with which people looked forward to viewing this spectacle, inspite of superstitions around the world.Of course there are superstitious idiots in even the most advanced of places. And last year there was a similar hype for the solar eclipse. Today we understand the movement of the stars with precision, imagine what the earliest humans would have thought when they saw the moon turn red. In ancient Amazon , they would have sacrificed a few dudes to the event. Or some 'homam's and 'puja's would be conducted with large amounts of ghee burn for nothing. We need a scientific approach to universal phenomenon. Questions need to be asked, and answered. Even after all the data, nobody could predict who would win the  2016 election accurately. But eclipses can. We seem to understand more about our universe than about our own minds.

And it is events like these which remind me that despite all the chaos on earth, the universe moves on without unchallenged. Its as if nobody up there cares about the stupid things we do down here. And rightly so. Events like these re-reinforce my belief in science, nature; and the truth that ultimately ,we humans are powerless against the forces of nature.

Reminds of that great quote by Carl Sagan.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

Sobering picture of Indian economy

 

Read Scroll’s takedown of the Economic survey report for this year. Previous years reports were drenched in optimism. But now even they are admitting to reality.

They forgot the farmers.

More challenges:

Shit Stuff happens

 

“Until early 2016, India’s growth had been accelerating when growth in other countries was decelerating. But then the converse happened. The world economy embarked on a synchronous recovery but India’s GDP growth – and indeed a number of other indicators such as industrial production, credit, and investment – decelerated,” says the latest survey suggesting how things did not go as expected.

India was the only major economy in the world to have registered a growth slowdown in 2017, even as most other countries have emerged out of the 2008 crisis.

Seth’s best yet

 

 

Welcome to the Mobocracy

 

If the current affairs are going to stay, we will have soon lose our status as the world’s largest democracy. It was subtle at first, but its definitely getting worser every day. There is a new form of government in force today, one which its citizens can threaten, and hold ransom. Doesn’t matter what the law says, or the constituion mandates, it is the mob which is control. More of a threatocracy or mobocracy.

On on the eve of republic day this year, the news which greets Indians is that of utter chaos.

 

So background. There is a terrible film-maker who has steadily made stupid , boring movies shot on elaborate soundstages. Having running our of original thought years ago, he now picks up historical stories from the country, and adds his own twist to them. I slept through his last 4 movies. Even when they were on DVD ! His movies should definitely be banned, but not for the reasons currently trending on news.

Even after the supreme court stated that states cannot interfere, there are now violent protests in those states. And the states are not doing anything to stop it. Theatre owners are scared shit to run the movie. Fearing mob backlash.

All this for what is actually a snorefest of a movie.

This is not the first time the mob has held the state ransom. This exact thing happened last year. On 25 August 2017, widespread rioting in northern India broke out after guru Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the religious leader of Dera Sacha Sauda, was convicted of rape. At least 41 people were killed,authorities had suspended internet services for 48 hours and Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code was imposed.

 

The world is watching us slowly destroying ourselves into chaos. What a time to live in.

Happy Republic day.

The best television is now online

 

I am talking of video content here. Movies,comedies, thrillers, even documentaries and mini-series. While the quality of television programming on traditional channels is steadily decreasing, some of the best video programming is now moving online. It used to be just youtube, but now with netflix, amazon prime , chrome cast and all those other paid subscription services, the online viewer has more options to choose from. Who would have thought. As always, I have been a late adopter, I have been using Primevideo for the past three months now on a yearly subscription of 500 rupees. That amount is nothing, the real cost comes from the internet bills, but thanks to competition in the telecom industry, that too has become cheap. These new subsciption programmes only make sense if you can get on an unlimited broadband internet service for cheap. I have been watching lot of original prime programmes, along with movies not only from hollywood, but across languages and countries as well. And you know whats the best part ? Because they rely on paid subscriptions, there are no ads. Ever.

This is definitely the future.

Can’t believe youtube has been around for more than 10 years now. But the amount of junk on the site is increasing. So many people are just reposting other’s videos, and opening up channels to rant (and review) about things. I think this trend is popular in India, people can only have so many ideas. But the content on paid services is , at least for the moment, curated and created by the sites themselves.

Just finished watching ‘The Night Manager’ on prime. There could not have be a more boring title for a  more exciting and thrilling televsion program. It came out a few years ago, but I despise the term ‘Manager’ so much, I ignored it. Turns out, its actually a very exciting ride, full of tall, beautiful people, talking in rich, British accents, even when they are cursing. And the locations, Cairo, Switzerland and Morocco ! But the real winners are the cast and direction.

Then there are other Amazon originals, like Mrs Maisely. It was not that funny, but they could not have done this on TV. My favourite charachter ? Abe.

Surprisingly, they have also made available some of the newest movie releases in regional languages. No malayalam movies so far. The most educated state is still staying away from the next generation of viewers. But the latest flicks in Tamil and Telugu are there.

The only reason Prime is so successful in India is the pricing. They have made their services affordable to the average Indian, whereas Netflix still thinks Indians can pay in dollars.By the way, did you know that Netflix is now worth 100 Billion dollars ? But in the long term, the charges should come down further, as increasing number of people go online for the better quality and the freedom to watch in their own time.

Throwback to the Satyam scandal

 

Remember 2009 ? Me vaguely. This was when smartphones were still only for the filthily rich, in countries with very high wireless speeds, orkut was the facebook of the time, and flipkart still sold only books. The tech industry in India was hit by a huge scandal that year. One of the more prestigious software services firm revealed that they have been cooking their account books for years, and was actually in massive loss. The Satyam scam was at the same time shocking and unbelievable, because the company had a rags to riches story and aleady has branches in many foreign countries and hundreds of clients. And I think it was also shameful, because the name ‘Satyam’ in hindi/telugu/(insert any south Indian language here) means ‘Truth’. Talk of punctured balloons.

I remember the day when the scam was revealed, mostly by SMSes and rapidly forwarded e-mails. Most of the engineers on the floor I think did not see the seriousness of the scandal, and were actually looking for a way to cash in on this in the stock market. You see, when the truth about the scandal was made public, shareholders began dumping Satyam stocks. Like garbage. People on my floor (looking at you, Ankit !) had plans to buy Satyam shares when I hit rock bottom, confident that the issue would be resolved in a few days and would pick up soon. Time enough to make some money !

Remember , this was all happening during the last recession. Engineers employed by Satyam began looking for jobs frantically, flooding jobsites with their resumes. Most were even willing to take a paycut just to move to a better job. Some took drastic steps. Even today people are hesitant to admit they worked for Satyam.

Anyway, I divert. The big question everyone was asking how come such a huge financial scam was hiddden. Surely there were multiple people in a co-ordinated cover up. Satyam’s books were audited by the …ahem…prestigious PriceWaterCoopers. Apparently they were auditing only the physical books the Chairman had specially cooked for them, instead of actually double checking with the banks.

Had this been any other country, the courts would have dealt out something in a matter of few days. Maximum a few months. But nobody is in a hurry in India. The court battles began running marathons, and justice was delayed. This week, more than 9 years after the scam, Indian courts have banned PriceWater from auditing any listed Indian company for two years, effectively affecting their direct revenue. This was in addition to who knows all the fines they will be charged.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has barred Price Waterhouse from auditing any listed company in India for a period of two years for its alleged role in the Satyam scam.The regulator had also directed the auditing firm to disgorge 13.09 crore along with 12% interest per annum since January 2009.In 2010, SEBI issued a show-cause notice to Price Waterhouse, among many other entities, after it emerged that the accounts of Satyam were falsified and inflated.

I was thanking my good fortune. When I was a fresh graduate looking for an IT job, I had attended a Satyam job fair in Kochin, Kerala, a few years prior. I had cleared all the rounds and was rejected by their HR-asshole in the last moment. Some of my juniors got through though. Had they selected me, I would have taken the offer and stayed employed with them in 2009, when all hell broke loose.

PWC had a nice run all these years. Meanwhile the chairman was pronounced guilty only in 2015, and Satyam was taken over by Mahindra’s software division in 2012.

When I joined there a few years ago in Bangalore, I could notice the older Satyam logo at multiple places in the campus. An old logo on a building was removed but grafitti remained. On stickers on old furniture and computer systems.

Its a scandalous past everybody just wants to forget. But the cases will still continue in Indian courts…

Rough start

 

This is crazy. Its only been a week into the new year and things are already to a rough start. Lets see..

First thing in the new year, this thing happened. First tweet of the new year !

Trump tweeted that he has a "bigger" and "more powerful" nuclear button than North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

A new book says Trump never planned on winning the election.

Closer home, there were multiple fires in Indian capitals.

Access to the aadhaar database has been leaked. And UIDAI is crucifying the messenger. Lead by example.

The US is mulling changes to its visas. And this has got India rattled.

There has already been 34 terrorist incidents this last one week.

The US is freezing up, and it is simmering down under.

 

 

 

Way to go, world ! Just 51 more weeks left.

 

All roads lead the the Gym !

 

It has happened. The annual casual visitors to our building gymnasium. Since new year’s eve I have been seeing a lot of totally new faces. People I have never seen in the facility in the last few months. Suddenly I feel the gym is now crowded, there is someone always waiting at every machine, and most of the dumbbells are missing. There is only possible explanation for this new found fascination for the gym : new year’s resolutions.

Its a powerful thing, resolution. And its fascinating how everyone resolves to take exactly the same decision every year. Interesting to see how synced up we all are. I wonder if the whole world thinks like this.

Curios, I checked it out on google trends.

Yep. Verified. Interest in these topics have definitely peaked globally in the last one week,  on New Year’s eve.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to ask this gentleman to get off the bench press.