Lessons in history (not my favourite subject) from Gridman today.
ACROSS
1 What a heavy-handed policeman wields to control mobs (3,5) BIG STICK [CD]
5 Go get the priest, short native (6) ELICIT {ELI}{CITizen}
11 Generate fruits and vegetables (7) PRODUCE [DD]
12 One who rocks baby to sleep is more dim - daughter replaced by
learner (6) LULLER (-d+l)LULLER
13 Choice begins late in political contest (8) ELECTION sELECTION
15 It is for you and me (4) OURS [E]
16 Clues Sibal framed are reason to fight (5,5) CASUS BELLI* Thanks to google
18 Soft champion hat for speedster (4,6) PACE BOWLER {P}{ACE} {BOWLER}
20 Bottled spirit surrounds Jack with noise (4) DJIN {D{J}IN}
23 Hurried back to commanding officer with nervous movement for
drug (8) NARCOTIC {NAR<=}{CO}{TIC}
24 Indian university gets one honour after honour for the Buddhist
monk (6) BHIKSU {BH{1}{K}{S}U} No idea what honours K and S are? Are they from Chess? Surprisingly this word does not appear in Chambers (Addendum - BHIKKU {BHI{K}{K}U} - See comments)
26 Imagine, it may be still! (7) PICTURE [DD]
28 Ball bearer, at sea, was rife (6) TEEMED {TEE}{MED}
29 Ability that helps you put two and two together (8) NUMERARY [CD] (Correction - NUMERACY - See comments)
DOWN
1 In which Babur and Ibrahim Lodi clashed (6,2,7) BATTLE OF PANIPAT [GK]
3 Jack to obtain something to aim at (6) TARGET {TAR}{GET}
4 Church bends in duty (4) CESS {CE}{S}{S}
6 Newly arrived, they will grow up to be in pride (4,4) LION CUBS [CD]
7 Important credit to university amateur put up (7) CRUCIAL {CR}{U}{CIAL<=}
8 What the sepoys’ revolt of 1857 snowballed into (3,6,6) THE INDIAN MUTINY [GK]
9 A principal partner’s breaks, around fifty, get claps (9) APPLAUSES {A}{P}{P{L}AUSES}
14 Hush author - the one producing funny pages (3-6) GAG-WRITER {GAG}-{WRITER}
17 Downright sailor thus gets the instrument (8) ABSOLUTE {AB}{SO}{LUTE}
19 Conservative soothsayer in boat (7) CORACLE {C}{ORACLE}
22 Cheese from goat’s milk spreads cheer around. See? (6) CHEVRE {CHE{V}RE*}
25 Essentially pure module’s central language (4) URDU {pURe}{moDUle}
24 Indian university gets one honour after honour for the Buddhist monk (6) BHIKSU {BH{1}{K}{S}U}
ReplyDeleteI put this as BH{I}{K}{K}U
K: king (honour)
Sandhya is ... ... ... ... ... .. ... right (as always!).
DeleteThe entry K has "Honour' among others in XWD, Chambers Dictionary of Crossword Abbreviations. But I did not stop to think how. Whether it refers to Knight or any other.
Comes from bridge. A,K,Q,J are all honours
DeleteAs I have mentioned in the main post, this word does not appear in Chambers and the two spellings given in Wiki are BHIKKHU and BHIKSU
DeleteBut the Buddhist monks normally use Bhikku as a title or prefix to their names.
DeleteThe Sanskrit Bhiksha is the root.
Agreed, but it is spelt as BKIKKHU or BHIKKHUNI
DeleteWebster & OED have bhikku
DeleteThanks, Ramesh, for clarification on K = honour.
DeleteOED online does not seem to have Bhikku. May be I saw something that wasn't there. Can confirm later tonight. Apologies if you were misled by my 9:05 posting.
DeleteWebster online has it . If it asks you to start free trial, try searching "Bhikku Webster" on Bing or Google and follow the link form there.
Well, the confusion prolongs. My dictionary spells as BHIKHU.
DeleteI saw the right thing after all. Concise OED 11th edition has it. It has both Bhikkhu & Bhikku
Delete29 Ability that helps you put two and two together (8) NUMERARY [CD]
ReplyDeleteTYPO: NUMERACY
A1 - I put in as THE LATHI which fits in perfectly and was beaten for a while...
ReplyDeleteNot Black and Blue all over I hope :-)
DeleteIt was nerve-wracking, not back-breaking though...
DeleteIf it was the way you mentioned, it would have called for Black Label or Blue Riband...
By the way, before someone points out, both nerve-racking and nerve-wracking are approved by thefreedictionary.com.
Delete...so that you will not be put on the rack by someone for your slip!
ReplyDeleteBlack Label/ Blue Riband on the rocks again?!
:-)
DeleteIs not Bhikshu more common- derived as suggested above by Bhiksha from Sanskrit meaning asking for alms? I was confused there.
ReplyDeleteAgain, had to use googlr freely for a few.
Ramesh scores... with Honours. Never connected with Bridge, although I am very much interested and play occasionally.
Buddhism, according to one school oh thought shunned some sounds (they were considered voilent?) like r and sh. So dharma became dhamma, Mahindra became Mahinda (as in Rajapakshe) and bhikshu became bhikku
DeleteDifference between Pali & Sanskrit ?
DeleteKishore, what will be left of our names if 'r' and 'sh' syllables are dropped?
DeleteExactly!
DeleteMy above was in resp to Ramesh's post. Richard, I like it when ladies pronounce just the first three letters of my name!
DeleteI do not think r is always dropped in Pali. Kishore would most likely be Kisore.
DeleteKishore 10:17 Kis ki zikr kar rahe hain aap?
DeleteUnse mili nazar to mere hosh uDgaye!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBhikku, bhikkuni (பிக்கு, பிக்குனி) may be Tamilised forms. I think Kalki's historical novel 'Sivakamiyin sabadham', which treats the spread of Jainism and Buddhism during the times the story is set in, has these terms.
Delete
ReplyDeleteReading of Benjamin Netanyahu in today's paper reminded me of his brother Jonathan, the hero who led the rescue op in Entebbe and lost his life.
Kishore, when Netanyahu first came to power, I had created the following 'Knock Knock' story.
DeleteKhat Khat...
Kaun hai?
Main neta hoon?
Neta, kaun?
Main neta naya hoon....
Kishore,
ReplyDeleteI used to wonder about 'dhamma'.
Thanks for dropping by. Do enjoy time with visitors at home.
The 'regular writer' mentioned by the RE of TH in his column today is yours truly. I was quoted extensively by him on three or four occasions earlier.
They are knitting the ravelled sleeve of care. Just read that piece in RE. In Mindsport for example, Mukul Sharma used to print even wrong answers if they were well presented, advising the correspondent to have a dekko at the correct one.
Deletei have not come across the plural form of applause earlier - is it commonly used?
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the second Sandhya for the day!
DeleteTwo twilights in the same morning? Welcome!
DeleteWelcome aboard.
DeleteThe scrabble dictionaries seem to be the only ones that carry applauses.
The singular clap, in its slang meaning, is dangerous and indicative of a 'rash' behaviour!
DeleteYour sense of humour is not skin-deep, I hope! ;-)
DeleteKishore, re "Sandhya", there are three in a day - at dawn, noon, and dusk.
DeleteTechnically they are, respectively, intersections of night with forenoon, forenoon with afternoon, and afternoon with night.
CV/DG: did you get my hold-all?
ReplyDeleteYes I did
DeleteYes. thank you. It was the very luggage that our home in the IAF quarters way back in the 1950s used to have.
DeleteRe 13 - Across NOTA option in the EVM in the election:
ReplyDeleteCan someone enlighten me? It is still not clear to me what net effect the pressing of the NOTA button would have in the result?
1. Will it be counted as an invalid vote? In what way will it reflect on the ultimate result?
2. Since it is a one-stroke, negative vote against all candidates, will one vote each be deducted from the total tally?
I am confused. Wonder if anyone has correctly interpreted the SC order. (Let me admit I have not read the verdict thoroughly.)
My views
Delete1 It will not be an invalid vote.
2 No deductions
3 If Nota wins then all the other lose obviously which I presume will call for a re-election.
4 It will have an effect on the percentage of votes polled by each candidate, unlike an invalid vote which does not count towards the total votes polled
Namma chunavaNegaLalli idu ondu hosa nota agabahudu!
DeleteAt present there is no provision for re-election if NOTA wins. It is now only a way to express the sentiment of the people.
DeleteThe earlier system also provided for NOTA but differently. You had to go to the booth and record that you are not willing to vote for anybody and the electoral officer would have to accept that. But the Supreme Court said that this system violated the principle of secrecy of ballot and hence the introduction of the option on the EVMs/ballot paper
Welcome to the blog.
ReplyDeleteYour own blog "The windmills of my mind" makes for an absorbing read. Of special note were those magical moments you enjoyed as a child when your mother would sing those classic vintage songs during power-cut time in Calcutta.
Also, your cataloguing of progress on the Delhi map quilt in "Knits, Purls, Quilts and Hooks". Hope you have finished working on Humayun's Tomb, Jama Masjid, Red Fort, Raji Chowk, etc on coasters. This would verily be a quilt to cherish.
On 'applauses'.
ReplyDeleteThat was a good question from SS.
Honestly, I would not use the word 'applause' in my writing.
If the word appears in my grid, it may be because of exigenceis in grid-filling.
Not that I did not check.
Wiktionary has it. The word is validated in Scrabble,
I used to have a hard copy of the Cobuild dictionary that was very useful in checking whether a noun is countable or not. But it was so dog-eared and so tattered with many pages loose and falling that I finally discarded it.
When I now look up the online version of Cobuild, it does not allow 'applauses'.
Thus the word has to remain an oddity in the crossword grid.
Take exclamation, interjection. These nouns do have plural forms. Why 'applause' cannot have, I don't know!
Some heavy downpour twice in the morning here in CBE has disrupted life of every one ! No supply of milk-- hence possibly no coffee unless one preferred the aroma of UHT milk overpowering the Bru and worse still, no newspapers that keep me engrossed the best part o my morning. I imagined a day ( I remembered having penned a poem once back in Nairobi) as to what will happen if all the suppliers of services stopped work for even half a day and how life would be turned topsy-turvy ! I experienced it today. aren't we all taking everything for granted ?
ReplyDeleteWhat better means to let off steam than trying a vintage Gridman?
Today's Gridman is in battle mode, what with Panipat and Tabard and the Indian Mutiny etc.
Clue of my day:NUMERACY ( Num(ber Plus Lit)eracy ?
I got Bhiksu alright . Kishore's interpretation of dropping a syllable is based on his pun-chant for puns?
If the NOTA votes ( if I can call them so) number more than that of any other candidate, would it lead to re election? And if so would all the present candidates be disqualified to contest again?
ReplyDeleteI see that Col. has already answered my question. and all of us presume (theoretically so) that it may lead to re election. Thank you Col.
DeleteNo it won't Padmanabhan. See my comments at 12:40
DeleteIf it won't then what will happen?
DeleteNothing. Just a record of public opinion
DeleteSo who gets elected, and if there is no reelection will the seat remain vacant for 5 years?
DeleteThe highest vote getter other than NOTA
DeleteThis is quote from a poem by Thomas Gray-"Elegy written in a country churchyard"-
ReplyDelete61 The applause of listening senates to command,
62 The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
63 To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
64 And read their history in a nation's eyes,
Note that the word 'applause' is in singular even while describing 'senates' in plural. I think this means that the plural form of senate was not in use, at least in old English. But I agree with CV on the 'why not' part of it.
Sometimes plays may have the stage direction 'Loud applauses' for an activity offstage.
ReplyDelete22D : Cheese from goat’s milk spreads cheer around. See? (6) CHEVRE {CHE{V}RE*}
ReplyDeleteNot getting the role of "See?" in the clue and "V" in the Anno. Could someone clear my doubt please ?
V = vide = See
Deletecheck this link V
Gone through the link "V". Thanks, Col Sir.
DeleteKishore,
ReplyDeleteThis week's theme for AWAD is wholly your speciality- the cartoons!
Dog consumed second egg?
DeleteWho consumed the bad parts of the first?!
ReplyDeleteBenares Hindu University at Varanasi:
ReplyDeleteImmediately following the laying of the foundation for the main campus by Lord Hardinge on 4 Feb, 1916, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya had invited several eminent guest speakers to deliver The University Extension Lectures from 5 to 8 February 1916. Gandhi's lecture on the occasion was his first public address in India.
Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had served as Vice-Chancellor from 1939 to 1948. Dr Katil Narasimha Udupa was another famous VC; he trained at BHU’s Ayurvedic college, then did his M.S. at the University of Michigan followed by FRCS (Canada). His vision led to the establishment of the ‘College of Medical Sciences’ later upgraded as the ‘Institute of Medical Sciences’. The current VC is Dr. Lalji Singh, also a Distinguished Alumnus of BHU. He had earlier established the famous Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics and then headed the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad.
The Election Commission on Monday announced that higher number of None of the Above (NOTA) votes will have no effect on the winning chances of a candidate in the upcoming elections when the person has bagged the majority of votes.
ReplyDelete“Candidate who seeks majority of votes will be declared elected even if no. of electors taking option of None of the Above (NOTA) is higher," the EC said.
EC also said that in case of only one valid nomination for a single seat, the Returning Officer has to declare the sole contestant duly elected, as per provisions of Section 53(2) of the Representation of People Act, 1951.
"In the case of elections to Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies, where there is only one contesting candidate in the fray, the Returning Officer has to, in accordance with the provisions of the said Section 53(2), declare the sole contesting candidate as elected," an EC release said today.
EC clarified that the NOTA option, which is an expression of a decision not to vote for the contesting candidates, is not relevant in such cases.
Consequent to the Supreme Court ruling allowing voters to exercise the NOTA option, EC will provide the same for voters at the upcoming Assembly polls and in all future elections, including the General Elections next year.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had ordered last month that Indians would now have a new choice when they go for casting their votes in the upcoming elections, none of the above (NOTA) option.
The NOTA option provides the voters with a unique right to disapprove all candidates on the ballot. As per news reports, this option has been introduced keeping in mind that it could put pressure on parties to field better-qualified politicians.
Indeed, Bhikku is the Pali version of the Sanskrit Bhikshu, like Dhamma for Dharma.
ReplyDelete