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.

Happy New Year !

 

Happy New Year ! Hopefully this will be the year things change for the better. For me, 2016 was bad. 2017 was worse. But it was also the year many things changed positively in my life. After being left behind for years, I now feel I am on the fast track. And it was mostly due to resolutions. New Year resolutions.

Now I have never been a fan of resolutions. Maybe it was the lazy pessmistic in me. But it does work. Some years ago I took the resolution to change to a healthier lifestyle. It did work to an extend. My resolution for 2017 was to migrate outwards. I was getting fed up of the tech scene in India. It was why I left my last company.

And it worked, because I am typing this up in Australia.

 

This new year, my resolution will be to settle down to a healthier , more active lifestyle here. And to explore Australia as much as I can.

So once again, wish you a happy and prosperous New Year !

 

It all works out in the end, mate