Friday 22 November 2013

No.10937, Friday 22 Nov 2013, Gridman

Gridman has given me quite a few words to link today !

ACROSS
1 Perform in the same rhythm – preserve U.S. magazine (4,4) KEEP TIME
5 Let go saint moving inner and made an analysis (6) PARSED (SPARED with S moved inside)
          Exactly what you did with this clue
9 Old account in a terrible soup? Hard to understand (7) OPACOUS (O+ AC in SOUP*)
10 Ape south Indian fellow in backward state (7) SIAMANG (SI + MAN in GeorgiA<)
11 Colour as doctor’s slow to begin with and inexperienced (4,5) MOSS GREEN (MO'S S GREEN)
12 Beautiful woman comes on hearing ring (5) BELLE (~BELL)
          I have had the pleasure of hob-nobbing with one in the last few days and even drawing her! 
          No sign of 25 too, I even managed to cadge a photograph ... Kaheen ek maasoom naazuk si laDki, bahut khoobsoorat ... 
          Can't sully a lady's name, of course. Not preux chevalier. See cartoon for further details
13 Unthinking, EC leaves search out (4) RASH (SEARCH - EC)*
          Gridman may get a notice from EC. Anyhow, an explanation/denial seems to square up things.
14 Newspapers not doing well. Apply force (5,4) PRESS DOWN
17 Chauffeur Peter’s tip to reach the destination (5,4) DRIVE SAFE (Peter=safe)
19 Imitate character in old gambling game (4) ECHO (CH in E.O.)
23 Homo sapiens’s admission is capital (5) AMMAN (AM MAN)
24 Arctic end of the earth (5,4) NORTH POLE CD
25 Lax since going into one’s reserve (7) ICINESS (SINCE* going into 1'S)
26 Scales of one country in another (7) INDUSIA (US in INDIA)
27 Suspend dead tribal (6) DANGLE (D ANGLE)
           Long back when we moved to Goa a few decades back, we came across this surname Angle and pronounced 
          it in the distinctive geometric way! It turned out that it was supposed to be pronounced Anglay
28 What a knife must have to its clear advantage (4-4) KEEN EDGE CD

DOWN
1 King at present touring Rome to get to learn better (4,4) KNOW MORE (K NOW ROME*)
2 Passes English with shortcomings (7) ELAPSES (E LAPSES)
3 Hard getting around royal depression (6) TROUGH (TOUGH around R)
          There, Richard, Helen has arrived, at least here! Over to Suresh for 'ankhon dekha haal' ...
4 Wrongly tells about premier’s nests (13) MISREPRESENTS (PREMIERS NESTS)*
          Richard, beware: you had got that call after Thomas!

6 A barrier on the resting place to peruse final book (4,4) ADAM BEDE (A DAM BED E)
7 Bear hardship with bird (7) SWALLOW 2
          One swallow doesn't make a summer, but several swallows make your stomach full         
8 Sword with irregular edges exchanged (6) DAGGER (RAGGED with edges, ie.R and D swapped)
10 Fires AP’s goons having botched up anthems (5,2,6) SONGS OF PRAISE (FIRES AP'S GOONS)
          Will all the goons present in the present AP be shared between the divided states?
15 On which life is full of composure (4,4) EVEN KEEL CD
16 Play in which there’s romance – or nothing! (4,4) LOVE GAME CD/DD
18 Artist and politician bring leader back to plant (7) RAMPION (RA MP NO.!<)
20 How fingers are kept, hopefully (7) CROSSED CD
21 A drive that goes haywire is altered (6) VARIED (A DRIVE)*
22 Film article held by university fellow (3,3) THE DON
          Hindi movie!  Now, did Gridman have something else in mind?

65 comments:

  1. If this CW were to come in the IXL final I would have flunked at 9A, 10A, 26A and 18D due to lack of Dictionary support for confirmation

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    Replies
    1. Ditto. I had confirm all of them after figuring out the wordplay !

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    2. In addition to what you have listed, I had to confirm EO and Angle too

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    3. Though I didn't know those two also, I put them in without confirmation.

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  2. Sujatha, read your comment of the day before yesterday and happy to note that you like ‘Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening’. I had used a part of that very stanza in the cartoon on Donald Pleasance, recalling his role in Telefon, around three weeks back. Here’s the link:
    http://thehinducrosswordcorner.blogspot.in/2013/10/no10915-mon-28-oct-2013-arden.html

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  3. Hi Folks, I am off the radar for the next three weeks from Sunday and will recommence blogging from the 16th of December. Till then, I might drop in occasionally and intermittently. Please excuse.

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  4. 11 Colour as doctor’s slow to begin with and inexperienced (4,5) MOSS GREEN (MO'S SO GREEN)
    {MO'S}{S} {GREEN}

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  5. Re comment below cartoon for 4D:

    It gives a nice feeling that I am being mentioned in higher circles. Yes, Kishore, I logged in late. I did get that call much after daybreak. Ahead of a heavy rain forecast, the sunshine is quite harsh.

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    Replies
    1. ;-)

      You were not mentioned in the elongated circle, Harry was. Yor name was an 'out of the box' reference

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    2. Tom (Thomas), Dick (Richard) and Harry (Harold)!

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  6. Col.
    "Enjoy madi"! In Tamil 'madi' means upstairs.
    Have a nice time Kishore though we would sorely miss you and your cartoons.
    Is it by chance or choice that George Elliot's first book became final book in the clue? (though the context is different)
    Had trouble with NE corner. Happy to note that I am not alone.

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    1. The 'maadi' used here is the Kannada version

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    2. It's actually 'Enjoy maaDi' which just means 'Do enjoy'.

      After hearing about the Tamil word 'madi', it struck me that in Kannada they say 'mahaDi' for storeys. I am sure they have a common root.

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    3. Not to further muddy the waters, but there is one more maDi in Kannada with a short a. This usually refers to the ablutions before rituals or even cooking in some orthodox houses

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    4. CV has commented on it @11:40.

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    5. There is a place MaDiwala off Koramangala in Bangalore. Any connecion with Dhobi Ghat?

      There is yet another expression connected to this. Give your clothes for 'maDi' is give it to the launderer for wash and press.

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  7. Here is another first for Mandya:
    Dr Vivek Hallegere Murthy MD MBA, nominated by Obama for Surgeon General last week, has links with Hallegere village of Mandya district. A doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, Dr Murthy is only 36 years old. When confirmed, he may be the youngest Surgeon General.

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  8. Wikipedia has a page on Bangalore Kanada, a vernacular dialect spoken by people specially in South-East Karnataka - Bangalore, Mysore, Mandya. It mentions Kannada words (slang or catchy words) which may also be combined with English as Kanglish (Kannada+English). A whole list of Kanglish words and phrases exist which include "Just Maja Maadi" ("chill out"), "Enjoy Maadi" and "Swalpa Adjust Maadi". 'Maadi' literally means do or make.

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    Replies
    1. NR, you seem to know a lot about Karnataka and take a lot of interest too. Just a casual query, what's the connection like? By chance, did you any time live in this state?

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  9. At last, finally, in the end, my PC has been repaired ! It was really frustration, frustration, frustration all these days !!


    Had an easy time solving Sankalak's and Gridmans puzzles till yesterday. Today it was tough going and had problems in all the four corners, nevertheless I could solve 22 clues out of 30.

    Feel sorry to note Kishore will be off the Radar for the next 3 weeks.

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    1. Another common expression is Sakat hot magaa! - I don't know how to translate it to perfection - which has been adopted as their tagline by Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM in Karnataka. Sakat is a derivation from Urdu, quite obviously.

      'Very hot, my friend' is the implication, going along with the mirchi element. Although 'maga' means son in Kannada, it is a colloquialism used in addressing a friend or a too familar acquantance in Bangalore and other places.

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    2. Maga (not Krav Maga) is used in Kannada almost in a way similar to saala in Hindi or machchan in Tamil.

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    3. In Tamil the tagline is 'sema hot, machchi'.

      This is a lingo. 'Sema' means 'very'. 'Sema hot' means 'very hot'. Of course, here 'hot' is in the sense of 'spicy' rather than indicating degree of temperature.

      Another word for 'very' used by Tamilians informally is 'bayangara' (terrible).

      'Machchi' is a term of familiarity used among young equals. I think it is derived from 'nachchaan' - which is a kinship term meaning wife's brother or sister's husband - or is a short form of machchinan, which means wife's brother.

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  10. 'Madi', where the a is short, in both Kannada and Tamil, is a state of ceremonial purification.

    People in Karnataka may use the word 'snaana' for everyday bath but Madhwas like me long settled in what is Tamil Nadu and speaking no-pure Kannada may use the word 'madi' even for the ordinary wash.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, CV, I am familiar with the expression 'maDi', a practice which is religiously followed.

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  11. What's new on Helen, by the way?

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    Replies
    1. Suresh, our correspondent is close to Ground Zero and may report.

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    2. Landfall at 1 pm

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    3. Raining like Phailin. They say that Helen is weakening, but the rain is not.

      By the way ground zero is about 400 Km south of here.

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    4. And missing Mehbooba Mehbooba

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    5. Oooooooooo oooooooooooooo !

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  12. Thank God he is close only to ground zero & not to helen!

    madi (again with a short 'a') also means lap in Tamil (a la laptop)

    Kishore,
    Solpa illa, romba adjust madi.

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    Replies
    1. For Padmanabhan and other Tamil knowing readers

      A line from an old Tamil film song floated in my mind (who remembers lines from today's songs when they are mostly meaningless).

      Madi meedhu thalai vaiththu
      Vidiyumvarai thoonguvom

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    2. Padmanabhan

      The word you need is 'thumba' - which in Kannada means a lot.

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    3. I was not sure of the Kannada word. Just made good with the Tamil version!

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    4. I think of the song "Atthai madi Methhaiadi, Aadi vilayadamma"

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    5. We have "Madi Kodi" in our home

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  13. CV,
    Today happens to be the Birthday of George Elliot (Mary Ann Evans)- thanks to Google. Looks to be more than a coincidence.Refer 6D.

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    1. Oh, Paddy, that makes me feel nostalgic. We had to study her The Mill on the Floss for English Major in College.

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    2. But it is the shorter novel 'Silas Marner' which touched me more than any other of the Eliot novels.

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  14. For 'maadi' I remembered the Tamil song- 'madi mele madi katti kodi kodi serthu vaitha seemane...'

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  15. Come on, come out, komaanae!

    'komaan', I think, is a colloquialism for 'komagan' - which means the son of a king, prince, and thus an eminent person.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right and it rhymes with seeman, another term for an eminent person.

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    2. Seeman is again possibly colloq. For sreemantha, a well to do person, as earlier part of the lyrics seems to suggest

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  16. OPACOUS, SIAMANG and INDUSIA are three new words from the glossarmoury of Gridman and these thus are the clues of my day.

    28 acorss is the creation of a sharp mind.

    Does keep fast ( Vrat rakhna) relate in any way to KEEP TIME? No wonder, Mulayam Singh Yadhav is an anglophobe !

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  17. Good for us Delhi-ites to get exposure and explanations to Kannada and Tamil colloquial terms! The only one I was familiar with was 'enjoy maadi'!
    Gridman very enjoyable, but opacous, siamang and indusia were very unusual.

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  18. TH 10919/ 1st Nov 2013 had
    10 Biggles’s boss Raymond, say, hides gold in the potty after a song (3,9)

    As reported in yesterday's papers they did find gold in an airplane potty!

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    Replies
    1. Kishore,

      this is old news. It happened in Chennai almost a month ago. The scheme looked to be ingenious with 2 teams working in tandem, one in the international flight from Dubai and the other from Chennai to Delhi. The had noted that the same aircraft is being used for the flights and hence the scheme!

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  19. Kishore, Suresh et al:

    What a coincidence! I just came to know that our good old Helen Jairag Richardson-Khan turned 75 yesterday.

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    Replies
    1. It came in DC supplement yesterday and I thought that is why you had raised the subject in the first place!

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    2. What a pity, I am not a regular DC reader. I raised the subject out of concern for our friends in the AP coast.

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  20. Sad news is that Anand has just lost teh world grown, the game ending in draw with just the 2 kings on board.

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  21. And talking of Madi. Aftr Helen we are expecting Lehar next week and after that it is Madi

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    Replies
    1. Congratulations ! Nice to hear you are expecting ;-)

      Btw, people in other places plan weekend getaways. People in coastal Andhra and Odisha await the next spinner

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  22. Kishore, have just read your response to my post in the blog yesterday! I am quite ashamed to admit that I am more proficient in English than in Hindi, and I don't think I would be any good at Hindi cryptic CWs :-(
    We will miss your lively presence in the next few weeks.

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    Replies
    1. Give it a try anyway. It's quite easy. Even solving a few can give you some fun.

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