Thich Quang Duc, June 11 1963

On this day, in Saigon, Thich Quang Duc self-immolated himself. This photograph taken by Malcolm Browne of Associated Press was awarded the World Press Photo of the year award.

David Halberstarm who filed his report with the New York Times writes

I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think.... As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him. (1965: 211)

Lidice, 10th June 1942

The children of Lidice - 82 of them who were exterminated in Chelmno - recreated in this memorial at the old village.

Albert Hofmann, Father of LSD, dies at 102

A beautiful and objective obituary in the Economist

"Desire to laugh" - that's what Hofmann managed to scrawl on his lab notebook even as he collapsed from his first self-injected dose of LSD.

He saw it as "the antidote to the ennui caused by consumerism, industrialisation and the vanishing of the divine from human life."

Of course, Timothy Leary changed all that, much to Hofmann's despair.

His advice to would-be trippers, therefore, was simple. “Go to the meadow, go to the garden, go to the woods. Open your eyes!”

Cricket Redux

A very insightful article in the London Times on the impact of T20 cricket. What is even more interesting is the spate of comments this article has generated.

“We want sixes and we want them now” read one banner at one of the games. William Rees-Mogg writes, "...Sixes can become a bore, like the battues of pheasants by the thousand at Sandringham in the days of King Edward VII. Sixes laid on in Twenty20 matches can be mere satiation."

I personally feel that this was coming because of the lack of competitiveness in test cricket - with Australia driving ahead in one direction and teams like West Indies and even Sri Lanka just falling away in in test cricket standards. In the last ten years, there have been only 3 or 4 competitive test series of note - India-Australia (2001, 2004), the Ashes of 2005, are ones I remember.

In T20, everyone, even Zimbabwe has a chance, (well, they beat a jet lagged sleepy Australian side at the World T20).

Unless all the test teams significantly raise their standards make every test match more and more competitive (with good pitches, etc.), T20 will take the headlines

Some interesting comments,

"Yes, I have many sympathies with the way the classical off-drive has been replaced with the slog-sweep as the shot de jour and the various tactical battles fought over the course of a 1st class match are being lost." - Stephen, Northampton, England

"I'd rather see a condensed version of the matchups and strategies employed in a T20 game, in an evening of fun filled with beer, friends and T20." -Ravi, Chicago, USA

"This is not cricket - it is a seditious subversion of a fine game to suit the cantankerous whims of film stars and liquor barons." - Shishir Baxi, Dubai,

I saw my first match yesterday. Virender Sehwag in Andrew Symonds over hit three sixes and equal number of fours and took an evenly poised match to a match that became a virtual walkover. One just realised that it can be over in a blink. Whoever paid Symonds $700,000 lost their money before he could even start counting the notes.

Earth, Water, Wind, Fire

From Barapani, 30km from Shillong. Nice. I think the camera exceeded itself.

December 8, 1980

Remembering John Lennon

The greatest Rolling Stone cover of all time - a photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken one day before
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9729637/

The airport at Liverpool was renamed as Liverpool John Lennon Airport with the motto "Above Us, Only Sky"

Khoya Khoya Chand

So, Godard says, who shoots a film – 1. The director’s vision. 2. Eastman color 3. The art director 4. the camera- the lens 5. the cameraman.

Sudhir Mishra writes about why he has made "Khoya Khoya Chand"