Another newspaper ad - a group of NRI Americans are setting up a state-wide cable TV network called MCN. They are now available in a hotel in Ernakulam, to sell franchises. The very same day I caught the train and headed to Ernakulam and met the Wizards from US.
The MCN guys presented the Project using their laptop - I said LAPTOP in 1992, which was costing more than 1 acre land in then Kakkanadu - but regarding my technical queries, they said " we have an office in kottayam, which deals with tech aspects. Your queries will be answered there".
Next day I reached MCN Kottayam office in Baker Junction. Again another meeting of a life-time.
The person who was sitting with his back towards me, and his PC monitor facing me, with a picture of a huge dish antennae; turned in slow motion, his little eyes magnified 300X and protruded out of the soda glass, actioned me to sit, and asked - are you Mr. Jayan Thomas, Nice to meet you, I am Steve Joseph.
MCN did not materialise. But later, Asianet was launched on the same format MCN had envisaged. Rumour is that, steve threatened the then VP of Asianet, late Mr. P.R Gopalan for IP (Intellectual Property) rights and in turn become the first Engineer of Asianet.
The MCN guys presented the Project using their laptop - I said LAPTOP in 1992, which was costing more than 1 acre land in then Kakkanadu - but regarding my technical queries, they said " we have an office in kottayam, which deals with tech aspects. Your queries will be answered there".
Next day I reached MCN Kottayam office in Baker Junction. Again another meeting of a life-time.
The person who was sitting with his back towards me, and his PC monitor facing me, with a picture of a huge dish antennae; turned in slow motion, his little eyes magnified 300X and protruded out of the soda glass, actioned me to sit, and asked - are you Mr. Jayan Thomas, Nice to meet you, I am Steve Joseph.
MCN did not materialise. But later, Asianet was launched on the same format MCN had envisaged. Rumour is that, steve threatened the then VP of Asianet, late Mr. P.R Gopalan for IP (Intellectual Property) rights and in turn become the first Engineer of Asianet.
Almost true, Jaya:)
ReplyDeleteBy the way thanks for the platform. At least I have some thing to do during my transits. Please update us when the "hits" reached a million mark. And we expect fare profit sharing:)))
1. The wizard's were NRI's but not all from US but just one. One of them were from your backyard ( Kuwait). Had then working for the ministry and later was later instrumental in the creation of Qtel. You only saw his laptop but i had seen many other things:)hehehehe. The last but not least in the group were me and my Bro, of course. MCN were authorized dealers of SVC based in Chennai and SVC in turn were authorized dealers of Echostar dish and Chaparral LNB both based in USA. So in a way were selling a US product then:)
2. That time no body knows "shit' about SMATV/CATV. And a dish (32 feet!) costs close to 50K INR. And we had to export other electronics from USA. A "bonda" as well as 1 acre of land in kakkanad pattikaadu were almost the same. We did drink only Chivas Regal then.Hope this explains the cost:)
3. MCN Kottayam my place! was indeed the corporate office. That PC had a sw program when you input the location of a place to install, it will give azimuth and elevation. By the way, we by then had installed quite a few SMATV/TVRO in chennai and kerala. It did had a program which will give you the rib curve data for manufacturing the dish with respect to the size you needed. Bu those were confidential information ( stolen from somebody heheheheh) and my screen saver you had seen was to just hide that. When clients comes in, who at least looks decent like Malabar Taj hotel GM, Woodlands and Grand hotel MD's, Vandiperiyaar estate owners who wanted dish on there estate etc, i usd to show them all these program as a marketing strategy to rope them in:) But for you:) another sodakuppy glassukaaran with niraasa kaamukan beard all over, no chance, just the screen saver...hehehehehe.
4. Let me have a drink to explain the last accusations:)).................all right:)
Not me but my brother had threatened Goplan sir because I left him for Asianet:) with the hope of tasting some single malt whiskey with the huge salary I am going to get:). And believe me, bro had a point then as well. By then, STAR TV had given us an outright to receive free to air channels so as to any body who cared clear all legal issues ( but 99% didn't bother at all but just made dish in the pashu thozhuthu and pull wire through kappa kool) on the condition that, we help then make encoded receivers based in India and later subscribe to them. I had a trip to 10 Harcourt Road in HK as well and we did had a MOU and NDA from STAR TV guys. That did made some waves at Asianet:)) But that was AFTER like 6 months once I had joined Asianet when my bro realized that, i was not going to MCN office but to our competitor Asianet every day hehehehehe.
So, I was hired like any of you guys - by replaying to a news paper ad - interview with PRG and same day appointment because of how well I did on my interview:) The only conditions of PRG were;
1. Block manorama to do anything to hurt Asianet. he thought i was related to manorama ( he misunderstood "malieakal" thanks to like a dozen different "malieakal" alone in Kottayam who are no way related at all:))))
2. Teach him a little bit about cable TV so that he can oversee the hiring the rest of the bunch in the first wave, including you:))))
So just thank me and shut up:)))))