No.10813, Monday 01 Jul 13, Gridman

High-fun day from Gridman: YES-MAN ! HAND-PICK, FULL-SCALE TRADE-OFFS

The Hindu online paper has numbered this puzzle as

The Hindu Crossword xxxx

Quite cryptic of them, I'd say: A four letter word, kisses, forty, extra-strength XXX stuff ? Take your pick. The print ed. is okay.

ACROSS
1 Eats (fish is consumed) resulting in upsets (5-3) SHAKE UPS (SUPS around HAKE)
5 Retiring taking strange, cheap wool (6) SHODDY (SHY around ODD)
9 A female and I hang out with a  foreign national (7) AFGHANI (A G (I HANG)*)  
          That's what he carries in his pocket too
10 These marathons are for amusement (3,4) FUN RUNS (CD)
11 All 12 inches of a foot-rule (4-5) FULL-SCALE (FULL SCALE)
          The half-scale (6") went into the instrument box and the full one went on the knuckles
12 Quiet people (no female) at a  dance (5) POLKA (P fOLK A)
          Reminded me of Little Dot, and Miss Fonseca 
13 Defeat,smart, not small (4) LICK (sLICK)
14 Decay isn't upsetting group (9) SYNDICATE (DECAY ISN'T)*
17 Exchanges revised ad efforts (5-4) TRADE-OFFS (AD EFFORTS)*
19 Breathe hard when general practitioner goes around (4) GASP (GP around AS=when)

          GP is a bird rarely seen now-a-days. Only specialisation counts ...
          'Breathe hard' reminded me of the sixteen-year old who responds "And I am only thixteen" to the GP who tells her "Big Breaths" 

23 Esteem a learner steeped in French panorama (5) VALUE ( A L in VUE= panorama or view in French)

          Reminded me of the villa converted into "Hotel La Dolce Vista" from 'Come September'

24 Egg-bearing Di dropped out of avoirdupois programme (9) OVIPAROUS (AVOIRdUPOiS)*

25 Place where things vanish - on top of Mt. Everest, perhaps (4,3) THIN AIR (CD) 
          Leading cause for HAPE and HACE, which I first encountered at IMI, Darjeeling
26 The sort of drink one likes on a hot day (3-4) ICE COLD (CD)
27 Dissolute artist Sikh's broke (6) RAKISH (RA SIKH*)
28 Cowardly - not like the protagonist of a Bollywood film, say (8) UNHEROIC (DD)

DOWN

1 Framework for building gone up in heat (8) SCAFFOLD (OFF< in SCALD)
2 Nice gal could well be... (7) ANGELIC (NICE GAL)* &LIT, too
3 Electronic mistake or slip (6) ELAPSE (E LAPSE)
          To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.” (Paul Ehrlich)
4 One of which is mixed with another to make a new hue (7,6) PRIMARY COLOUR (E)
6 Select carefully worker to play the banjo? (4-4) HAND-PICK (HAND PICK)
7 Jacket for two (7) DOUBLET (CD)
          I wonder how many a triplet can accomodate? Ménage à trois ?  (Read this last question with the next clue wordings ! )       
8 He would never say 'No' (3-3) YES-MAN (CD)
          It would be improper of me to give the example of a senior politician. I am sure you can guess correctly.

Cartoon by Rishi

           Rishi probably intended this to be a cartoon for OVIPAROUS (as I later deduced), though he did not specify which word he was drawing for and left it to my guess-work. But my guess went wrong and I included it under YES-MAN, the man who does not know how to say "No".  When the penny dropped, I let it remain here, partly because of the fact that I too had drawn for OVIPAROUS and partly because it fits here too. A contrary view is given in the footnote, so as not to take you attention away from the above cartoon @

10 Film what you can see at a given moment (5,2,6) FIELD OF VISION (DD)
15 How coin is inserted in a slot (8) EDGEWISE (CD) (Correction - EDGEWAYS [CD] - See comments)
          But flat when taken out of the refund slot. However, still edge-wise when taken out of the insertion slot itself
16 Somewhat poised, in-charge is coming at intervals (8) EPISODIC (POISED* I C)
18 Be boisterous! I will come back and sway around (7) ROLLICK (ROCK around I'LL<)
20 Sherry for a ladies' man (7) AMOROSO (A MOROSO)
21 Sailor goes after girl - a divine form (6) AVATAR (TAR after AVA)
          Sailor and girl reminded me of the iconic V-J Day in Times Square
22 Flower arrangement found right by champion setter (6) RACEME (R ACE ME)


@ Taking a contrarian position to the man who could not say 'No' as enshrined above, is the awesome Khamakhan who recites in Dakhni: at 4:50 in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UioFc9oLyk

For people who can't understand Dakhni, I give the words and translation below:
"Sarkari order hai; bachche 3 se baDkar naheen hona
 KhaTTA khakar ultiyan kartein, nahi bole to sunte nahin
"Have no more than 3 kids, says the government,
  But she eats sour and has vomiting, and if I say no, she just does not listen" 
 

LINK TO SOLUTION GRID