I thot I thaw a putty cat!!

There's this funny news story I came across online. Apparently, an Italian court has summoned Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck and Tweety Bird in a trial of a Chinese man accused of producing fake Disney and Warner Bros products.

Good news is that all of us toon fans can relax. None of these characters are going to do time in the slammer. They have been named as the "damaged parties" in the trial. Phewww!

Read the entire article here.

Of careers, dreams and clarinets

No. BusinessWeek does not pay me to promote their website. In fact, I haven't even bookmarked their site. (Though now I think, it's high time that I did.)

Anyway, this is a very interesting article I came by this morning. It's about making a career shift a few years into your professional life. What made me click through was the fact that I had been editing a similar story for my magazine just last week.

What makes me put this link up on the blog here is this one paragraph - which seems to so aptly sum up things and inspire too.

There's an old story about a man who heard a neighbor playing the clarinet. "Boy, you're a good clarinet player," he said. "Could you teach me to play?" The clarinetist said, "If you want to make that commitment, of course I could. It takes time to get good." "How long?" asked the prospective student. "In seven years, you'd be quite good," replied the musician. "Seven years! I'll be 46 years old in seven years!" Said the clarinet player: "How old will you be if you don't study clarinet?"

How old will you be in five years if you don't pursue your dream? Get started now.

Read the entire article here.

I certainly am into CDs still..

Just came by this very interesting BusinessWeek article about the declining sales of music CDs. Aaron Pressman talks about how music piracy may not be the one factor that's contributing to it. This is one of those pieces that makes you go, "Dang, why didn't I think of it before?"

http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2007/03/music_cd_im_jus.html

Treasure hunt

Sometimes, you stumble upon something really cool, when you are not looking for it. Serendipity, I think they call it. I have had a couple of such experiences. And both of them took place at PVR Saket, or more precisely where those booksellers sit right outside PVR Saket, with their stash of second-hand books.

I was rifling through one of the guys' collection of National Geographics and suddenly I see this particular one.



So what is special about this one, you ask? Direct your eyes towards the dateline, if you will please. That's right, just below the name. March 1957. That is March, Nineteen-Hundred-Fifty-Seven!! That makes it precisely 50 years old, give or take a few weeks. And what makes this find more precious is that it's in fantastic condition, especially when you consider the age. Not a single page is torn. Not a single picture is cut out.

That is one more thing I can add to my list of things that could possibly be put up on eBay ;)

And now, ladies and gentlemen, if you will please turn your attention towards Exhibit B. What appears to be just another Mickey Mouse collection with brown packing tape holding its spine together, is actually (I believe) yet another great find. I picked it up since it seemed to be old. And then I saw the original owner's signature and a date put down, on the inside cover. Mr Birla (that's the original owner) had scribbled a date from the year 1933. To be very honest, I thought that would be his birthdate or something. But then, a quick Google search later, I realised that this particular Mickey Mouse Annual does indeed date back to 1933!



And oh, I almost forgot to mention the prices I got them for. The National Geographic was for 30 bucks while the Mickey Mouse Annual was for 80. You don't think I bargained, do you?

I'm a "balance seeker"

Just came across this interesting post on one of my favourite gadget blogs, Engadget. It's about a study that seeks to categorise people according to the brand of cellphone they flaunt.

I'm supposed to be a family-minded, middle-aged manager, who seeks balance and is health-conscious! Hmm... I didn't know that about myself.

Guerilla marketing

Tomes have been written about marketing; and people have paid not-so-insignificant amounts to buy those. (Yes, I am guilty too.) But a couple of weekends ago, I was witness to some marketing that would surely impress Bond and Kirshenbaum.

We were at this popular market at Sarojini Nagar (that's in New Delhi), walking through seemingly unending displays of clothes and knick-knacks - most of which come at prices that deserve their own case-studies. So anyway, one of the trinket sellers shouts out: "Arre, yeh kahin aapka toh nahin gira?". As expected, all heads in the vicinity (including mine) turn towards him, then to the ground and then to him again. Then, boom! He delivers the salvo. "Arre, gira gira gira!! In sabka (pointing to his wares) bhaav gira!!" Whether or not people actually bought his stuff apart, the truth was that he managed to capture the attention of loads of 'prospective consumers'.

PS: I did contemplate translating the Hindi phrases into English. But then decided against it. Two reasons. One, I just couldn't get the correct flavour in English. Two, I reckon the few bloggers who do read my blog once in a while, do understand Hindi.

Why o why?

Why do I need this another blog? Am I signing up for the 'I have more blogs than you do' race?
Not really. Just that I had intended my other blogs to be photoblogs, one a concert photography blog and the other a general photography one. Over time, I realised that there were things that I wanted to write about. (Yes, I do get the urge to write sometimes :P) So I modified the 'brief' a bit and my concert photography blog will now be used for all music-related writing.
But what about the other stuff? Stuff like how I find it irritatingly amusing (or amusingly irritating) when I pick up two different dailies and find three not-so-different photocaptions: Skirting the issue. Yes, no kidding.
But naah, don't worry. This won't be (just) a crib-blog. I will just attempt to put down my thoughts (stop the wisecracks right there) on whatever comes to mind, here.
And the New Year is a good excuse too, no? :)