Most Memorable Photos - VI

I originally intended to make a 12-15 part series of the most memorable pictures i've come across, but lethargy and procrastination got the better of me. Also, a friend got bugged by my writing grave stuff and got me a very beautiful coffee table book about all the pulitzer winning photographs of the last century with narrative, and I lost the remnants of enthusiasm of writing..to reading.

Kolkata ke Keeday

Read Amitav Ghosh's - The Calcutta Chromosome. Its an old book now, released some 10 years back. Its part sci fi, part scientific research involving a wierd malarial strain, and somewhat futuristic. The author does a loose job on the sci fi front, the novel doesnt really have much about science fiction or doesnt delineate any new/emerging technology as could have 10 years back.

The first 3/4ths of the book left me grappling for loose ends and juggling the myraid of characters who were themselved confused as to where they should have been placed in the book. But the ending few chapters are remarkable and the story unfolds into one of the most haunting tales i've read in recent times. The last page leaves ones mind deeply mired in dark thoughts and unravels hazaar mysteries of the mind of the main character Antar.

The author hints at the darkness and disturbing lifestyle the future holds for us, and I will be deeply saddened to see my future generation living Antar's life who works from home, lives in a flat and interacts with his organization through his supercomputer Ava. Overall, this is a good read, if somewhat disconnected at parts. Surely good for Halloween!

Most Memorable Photos - Part V

James Nachtwey [1992]

This picture was taken in Somalia during the famine. DD featured endless documentaries in those days about the famine, which then seemed to be at a far off place. This picture shows a mother lifting the body of her dead son to carry him to a mass grave for burial. The picture won Nachtwey the World Press Award for 1992. Nachtwey then worked for Magnum, and won 2 awards within 3 years, and later started his own company, VII.

Source: wikipedia, jamesnachtwey.com

Pablo Bartholomew [1984]

This picture is perhaps the icon of grief and greed in the face of modern industrialization at India. The poisonous gas (Methyl Isocynate) leakage at Bhopal's Union Carbide plant, caused the death of this infant, amongst many others. Bartholomew won the World Press Photograph in 1984.

Source: wikipedia, worldpressphoto.org

Mustafa Bozdemir [1983]

This picture was taken during the devastating earthquake in Turkey during 1983. Bozdemir witnessed this woman embracing her dead children while her screams pierced his heart and said it seemed like she thought her love could will them back to life.

Source: worldpressphoto.org, bbc.co.uk

Eddie Adams [1968]

This picture is from the Vietnam war, during 1968. Adams was covering the war for Associated press when he took this picture of police chief General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Vietcong prisoner, Nguyen Van Lem, on a Saigon street, on February 1, 1968, during the opening stages of the Tet Offensive. Adams won the Pulitzer for this picture in 1969.

Adams later said: The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera.

Source: wikipedia

Most Memorable Photos - IV

John Filo [1970]

May 4, 1970 has become a day forever etched into American history. On that day, four Kent State University students were killed and nine students were wounded by National Guardsmen who were called onto the campus in response to protests and demonstrations against the Vietnam War. John Filo was a senior at Kent State working in the student photography lab when the shots rang out just after noon on that day. During the confrontation and ensuing chaos, he photographed a then 14-year-old runaway named Mary Vecchio as she kneeled over the bleeding body of Jeffrey Miller. Filo received the Pulitzer for his photograph while still a student at Kent State.

The photograph in Time-Life library was at some point airbrushed to remove the pole behind Mary, thus raising a storm of controversy about modified pictures in journalism.
Source: cnn.com, wikipedia

Malcolm Browne [1963]

Thích Quảng Ðức, was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection on June 11, 1963. Thích Quảng Ðức was protesting the persecution of Buddhism by South Vietnam's Ngô Đình Diệm administration. The photographer Malcolm W. Browne went on to win the 1963 World Press Photo of the Year for this image. Another reporter that witnessed the event, David Halberstam, remembers "As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound".This reminds me of the attempted self immolation by Rajeev Goswami which was front page picture in India Today and others.
Source: wikipedia

Raveendran [1990]

Rajiv Goswami (d. 2004) was a native of India, was notable for his attempted self-immolation while a student at Delhi University in 1990. His action, held in protest against the Prime Minister V.P. Singh's implementation of the Mandal commission's affirmative action recommendations, allegedly inspired a series of self-immolations by other college students and led to a movement against job reservations for Backward Castes in India. He finally gave up politics and started his own business. He continued to suffer from health problems until he died at the age of 33.

It was reported that V.P. Singh instructed Safdarjung hospital that he was not to die under any circumstances. The overdose of medication caused him to suffer kidney and liver problems, to which he succumbed later in 2004. He never took a government job and relied for sustenance on his parents who lived abroad.
Source: wikipedia, hindu, in.rediff, timesofindia, outlookindia

Most Memorable Photos - Part III

William C. Bealle [1958]

So, someone recently commented that I’ve posted pictures depicting only the darker side of humanity. Here is something to lighten things up. This picture taken by Bealle of Washington (D.C) Daily News, shows a policeman patiently reasoning with a 2 year old boy trying to cross the street during a parade. The picture titled “Faith and Confidence”, won the Pulitzer for photography in 1958.

Source: Pulitzer.org

Old MENSA Test

This is from an old Mensa Test, I came across on some random website. Copy-Paste-Post.

For eg. Solution for Question no.0.. "24 H in a D" is "24 Hours in a Day"
Try the rest and see how many u get..

0. 24 H in a D - 24 Hours in a Day
1. 26 L of the A
2. 7 D of the W
3. 7 W of the W
4. 12 S of the Z
5. 66 B of the B
6. 52 C in a P (WJs)
7. 13 S in the USF
8. 18 H on a G C
9. 39 B of the O T
10. 5 T on a F
11. 90 D in a R A
12. 3 B M (S H T R)
13. 32 is the T in D F at which W F
14. 15 P in a R T
15. 3 W on a T
16. 100 C in a R
17. 11 P in a F (S) T
18. 12 M in a Y
19. 13=UFS
20. 8 T on a O
21. 29 D in F in a L Y
22. 27 B in the N T
23. 365 D in a Y
24. 13 L in a B D
25. 52 W in a Y
26. 9 L of a C
27. 60 M in a H
28. 23 P of C in the H B
29. 64 S on a C B
30. 9 P in S A
31. 6 B to an O in C
32. 1000 Y in a M
33. 15 M on a D M C

Answers are in the Comments section, peep only if it itches bad.

Diving in my thoughts

So I went skydiving. My shallow pocket had been beating my urge of more than three years. West Lafayette is where my friend and senior from university days lives. Lovely town I must say, home to Purdue university, unbeatable summer weather, cool, breezy and spectacularly photogenic clouds this time of year. Were taking a spin around town when I spotted this eye catchingly ancient graveyard, where the trees grew thick and tall and the summer sun glistened and shimmered through the dense foliage to form minute patterns on the tombstones. A stroll in the graveyard with the evening sun (the town also has a mall for the afraid), confirmed existence of fear of apparitions in late 20s too. This picture proves that if one perishes in Indiana, one rests in scenic peace.

The eerie stroll was later complimented by a horror flic (wolf creek) which was a disappointment even with a mega sized and as flat as Indiana TV hooked to an equally impressive BOSE. Exploring the downtown? of west lafayette unearthed a recent chocolate-candy store where the vendor was too polite to ask me to stop sampling everything they had. We walked off with a pound of the best roasted almond-dark chocolate i've had, the last of which are going to see an end of their glamorous lives soon. A quaint lil town with a railway line (with station) running through it is this.

Skydiving day! A little bit of hesitation, some perplexing visuals and a long winding drive through Indiana/Illinois grass fields later, we found ourselves at the skydiving center, which was basically a rundown outfit at a barn and a paddyfield for an airstrip. It was almost sunset. Jim Morrison was singin somewhere far off, the barn had no neighbor for about a mile on each side, place was run by a bunch of wild kids and couple of old timer pilots smokin cigars. The planes were themselves not-so-young Cessna two seaters with one seat removed especially for parachuting. The tandem jump trainer who claimed to be a nurse in the making appeared to me a half crazed adrenaline junkie, and I was hesistant once more. Cowardice looks prettier masked with thoughtful hesitation, no? Want a video, someone asks...of course not! I am gonna be screaming my lungs out, might even pee mid-air, last thing I want it all that on video for my friends to laugh at.

Since it was a tiny (rusty, highly stickered, engines-bout-to-falloff) plane, I went with my certified co-jumper and a pilot.

10,000 feet later, everything on the ground is reduced to specks of dust and i'm saying my last prayers. I'm huddled near the door of the Cessna, when the pilot opens the door and my co-jumper asks me to hang my legs down and out of the plane. The roaring wind jumps to get his words, my shoe laces and last wits. This is when I make my first mistake...I look down. With my legs hanging out of the plane and my body about to, all the indian gods start a tandav right in front of my eyes and i'm reminded of everything since age 2 in a flash. I almost asked the pilot to turn back, but this heavy thing was obstructing my tongue..a heavy thing called male ego.

I jumped. 40 seconds of free fall, dont remember if I was breathing, the wind was cold and piercing at dusk. Free fall and gravity conspired against me knowing the presence of the co-jumper and for a while I was alone, in the clouds...falling...with my thoughts...like a hundred times before.