Rants N’ Jibes

Albert Hoffman is a swiss chemist. He invented the hallucinogenic drug LSD. He died of a heart attack at his Basel home at the age of 102.

He first produced LSD in 1938 while researching the medicinal properties of a plant fungus (ergot fungus). He ingested some of it by accident and felt its hallucinogenic effects. On which, he commented saying “Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror”. It was soon used as a common street drug by 1960. LSD is not addictive which makes it very different from other drugs.

The continued abuse of this drug forced countries to make it illegal. LSD is claimed by many researchers to be aiding as a psychotherapeutic drug. However, none of these claims have been officially accepted and this still remains a schedule 1 drug with no medical use.

Famed Indian film actress, Kajol’s father Shomu Mukherjee passed away in Mumbai, India on Thursday morning. He was 65.

The filmmaker had not been keeping well for some time and died of a heart attack at around 8 am. He is survived by his wife, actress Tanuja and two daughters, Kajol and Tanisha.

Son of Shashidhar Mukherjee, the famous Bollywood film producer of the 1950s, Shomu produced and directed films like Chaliya Babu, Patthar Ke Insaan, Lover Boy and Nanha Shikhari in the 1980s. He was also one of the owners of the famous Filmalya studio. The last film that he directed was Sangdhil Sanam in 1994.

The funeral will take place at Mumbai’s Santa Cruz crematorium at 2 pm, sources said.

Mukherji passed away on the eve of his son-in-law Ajay Devgan’s directorial debut U Me Aur Hum, casting a pall of gloom in the family.

Family sources said, the film, however, will be released as per the schedule.