Shall leave it to the readers to detect the theme.
ACROSS
7 Harry, a person from the North-eastern part of India (4) NAGA {NAG}{A}
8 Middle Eastern cleric's nursemaid travels round a group of islands (9) AYATOLLAH {AY{ATOLL}AH}
10 Pairing Asiatic tigers, initially protected by a Chinese dynasty (6) MATING {M{A
11 South Indian mummy has endless tea at first before the heartless sports partner (8) TEAMMATE {TEa}{AMMA}{ThE}
12 Water's spilled around Indian ship by a stewardess (8) WAITRESS {WA{I}TER*}{SS}
14 Joint sponsor's expense incurred around Head Office (2-4) CO-HOST {CO-{HO}ST}
16 Atmospheric conditions ruffle white feather after mad thief escapes (7) WEATHER {W
18 Lend a German vehicle in front of church (7) ADVANCE {A}{D}{VAN}{CE}
21 Doctor one species, at first, to create male insects (6) DRONES {DR}{ONE}{S
23 Appraisers slay ants haphazardly (8) ANALYSTS*
25 Ha! A rajma curry for a ruler (8) MAHARAJA*
27 Time of the year when son is under water (6) SEASON {SEA}{SON}
29 Bureaucrat's office assistant (9) SECRETARY [DD]
30 Scotsman's eastern weapon (4) MACE {MAC}{E}
DOWN
1 Accountant and artist walk to get tortoise shell (8) CARAPACE {CA}{RA}{PACE}
3 Hair style goes with the French bracelet (6) BANGLE {BANG}{LE}
4 Dream of Santa flying around in a fly's exoskeleton (7) FANTASY {F{SANTA*}
5 Serenaded Cameron, dancing with a note (8) ROMANCED {CAMERON*}{D}
6 Choice fruit for Pelham, I hear (4) PLUM [MD]
9 Detests drug concealed in bonnets (5) HATES {HAT{E}S}
13 Hero says thank you in tin clothing (5) TITAN {TI{TA}N}
15 Gangster's bodyguard is not light (5) HEAVY [DD]
17 Captivated, Deva was sent back after lens broke (8) ENSLAVED {LENS*}{AVED<=}
19 Have no effect with bad Count, having headless mice (3,2,3) CUT NO ICE {CUT NO}* {mICE}
20 Knight had a gal beaten up (7) GALAHAD*
22 Studies about present day saint (5) READS {RE}{AD}{S}
24 Values donkeys after loss of energy for a year (6) ASSAYS ASS(-e+ay}AYS
26 Building feature seen in lunar channel (4) ARCH [T]
28 Cash dispenser has a soul (4) ATMA {ATM}{A}
Never before samosas on successive days before 8.30- whatever be the theme!!
ReplyDeletePaddy, you are hereby put on a strict diet wef the morrow. Gorge while you can
DeleteSo, ATM is part of our atma?
ReplyDeletePossibly keeps the atma attached to the body. Nowadays, a chain of empty ATMs on a bank holiday can try to separate the two...
DeletePlum cw it is
ReplyDelete20 D Kishore must have had his laugh while setting this clue on the son of Lancelot and Elaine renowned for his gallantry.
ReplyDeleteGreat day for a sub par solver like me.
ReplyDeleteSatyam Shivam Sundaram
DeleteGreat day for a sub par solver like me.
ReplyDeleteGot them all :) looks like Plum is the theme! Heavy weather, Mating season, Gally, Drones, secretary (The Efficient Baxter), waitress, Lord Emsworth's tortoise shell glasses and of course, 6D!
ReplyDeleteRight (along with Ramesh) .... But look further ... in the clues tooo
DeleteA few allusions to lending/borrowing (Oofy or Ukridge?). 9D is about "The amazing hat mystery"? :)
DeleteFlowerpots and the Empress could've shown up ;)
Delete16ahas a ref too....
DeleteThey are in part2, which is already set, but will appear a few months later ...
Ah, the swan incident from "Very Good, Jeeves"?
DeleteNaren, in re the flowerpots, I thought I will Leave it to Psmith, since it has nothing to do with pfish. I wonder how he would have reacted meeting that poor PFish Ronnie. BTW, give a man a flowerpot and he will ask for pearl necklaces next. Bide your time and hold your horses and may be you will come across them. The Empress, of course, is too big to pen into a grid.
DeleteSudarshan, your parallel is fine, but my ref was to a book by PGW meant for younger readers which goes with the Pothunters etc
:) thank you, Kishore sir. I am Naren, by the way - I just changed my profile name.
DeleteAah, a tiger cannot change its spots, can it? You, no doubt, have taken care to get proper documentation for changing your name. I understand there are wheels within wheels and you need to sign on dotted lines on stamped papers, swear (not unparliamentary words) before the beak and cross their palms with silver before they call a rose by another name
DeleteSorry to be the messenger bearing bad news, _____ , (please fill up present name), but I peeked into the second PGW special and I see those flowerpots eagerly expected by you are nowhere in the picture. Maybe the third one ..
DeletePardon my usage of the fib format above, but you seem to have a good idea how the renaming system works. When I try to get even one wrongly used letter in my name corrected, the officialdom suddenly sprouts hands which demand to be greased more than the quantum of grease any grease-monkey might posses
DeleteKishore sir, neither did I come up in front of a judge after a night's revelry, nor did I inherit the name from an expired uncle for me to change names ;) Naren is what I am called at home, apart from other Dahlia-esque sobriquets such as "blot", "pimple", etc.
DeleteYou have not lived, if you have not separated a helmet from the arrached policeman. Bangalore was one of those places where, during the regime of Chief Minister Gundu Rao, the rozzers sported the nearest thing to a Bobby hat. The C
DeleteM inaugurated the lId by sporting one himself
The ref in 16a is to the White Feather
DeleteK@9.17-
ReplyDeleteGorging part is over. Now worried about the diet part!
Regurgitate today's...
DeleteNo Sweat! A smooth ride all the way!! Simple and elegant puzzle. Thank you, Incognito. :-)))
ReplyDeleteHave some plum pie with your samosas....
ReplyDeletePlum Pie
(or KhichDee, a hotchpotch Indian dish)
Galahad At Blandings,
Has many happy landings,
In fact, Over Seventy,
For many, that's plenty.
A Gentleman Of Leisure,
Looking for some pleasure,
Pleads with goofy earls,
Saying, "Bring On The Girls".
The Woosters and the Bassets,
Try to warm their well Frozen Assets,
Bobby makes hot water bottles squishy,
That’s certainly Something Fishy.
There's Ice in the Bedroom,
Gussie may become a groom,
Even if it's as Mephistopheles,
And it’s time to Ring for Jeeves.
Your counsel relieves,
Thank You, Jeeves,
Sometimes here and also there,
Blandings Castle And Elsewhere.
Jeeves, Meadowes or Purvis,
You always get Quick Service,
Always swiftly and with style,
That's Service With A Smile.
When it is Cocktail Time,
The mood's very 'sublime',
The men come in tons,
For A Few Quick Ones.
There's Joy In The Morning,
With Jeeves in the Offing,
When the plot really thickens,
There's Love Among The Chickens.
Young Men In Spats,
And A Damsel In Distress,
Are duly advised right,
By Uncle Dynamite.
Butlers may buttle and zip,
Sporting a Stiff Upper Lip,
Jeeves, but it's tough when,
Aunts Aren't Gentlemen!
The Coming of Bill,
Accompanied by Jill,
The Reckless starchy
Indiscretions of Archie.
The Clicking of Cuthbert,
Who chases every skirt,
With The Girl On The Boat,
Will certainly get your goat.
Intrepid young men,
Like Sam The Sudden,
And Bill The Conqueror,
Do their youth squander.
When The Small Bachelor,
Experiences Heavy Weather,
He tries, plans and gets,
Eggs, Beans and Crumpets.
When you are delirious,
Read Nothing Serious,
Just some morale boosters,
Like The Code Of The Woosters.
Let's Meet Mr. Mulliner,
Who's got Spring Fever,
From The Girl In Blue,
How?! I have no clue!
Show someone off a bridge?
Please consult Mr Ukridge,
And also Picadilly Jim,
(You surely know him).
But let us all be totally frank,
Tho' there's Money In The Bank,
You will agree it is rather funny,
That Big Money is Uneasy Money.
When exceeding the budget,
And in need of The Little Nugget,
Make enquiries, with thanks,
"Do Butlers Burgle Banks?"
Why is love synonymous
With Bachelors Anonymous?
For the answer forthwith,
Just Leave It To Psmith!
And If I Were You,
(That can't be true)
I'd get into Hot Water,
With the Earl's daughter.
I've got The Heart Of A Goof,
Do you demand further proof?!
I found the real reason,
It's The Mating Season!
A classic. Enjoyed it. Thank you Kishore. Made up for the long absence in one stroke, thanks of course to the mating season!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the second part, but months?
Yeah, I don't want to bunch them together too closely. As you might have noticed, Plum detesters (alas, such people to exist), lurk in yonder bushes and may suddenly whip off their masks and give tongue if it happens once too often and too close
DeleteKishore sir, to such "detesters", the starting lines of the preface by Wodehouse from Summer Lightning should suffice in enabling them to bite their own tongues:
DeleteA certain critic – for such men, I regret to say, do exist – made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names'. He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have outgeneralled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.
I am trying to count (if I can) the no. of PGW titles in the above poem)
ReplyDeleteI was in my early 50s when I wrote it...
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA list of 48. Good work there. but no cigar/coconut. Anyway, the titles are in 'Title Case'. The ones you missed are Over Seventy, A Few Quick Ones and Jill, The Reckless, Making it a round 50 in the poem and one in the title
DeleteI haven't ready them. Good! now I have something to look forward to
DeleteNice one Kishore. Here is the list of titles I could spot.
ReplyDeletePlum Pie
Galahad At Blandings
A Gentleman Of Leisure
Bring On The Girls
Frozen Assets
Something Fishy
Ice in the Bedroom
Ring for Jeeves
Thank You Jeeves
Blandings Castle And Elsewhere
Quick Service
Service With A Smile
Cocktail Time
Joy In The Morning
Jeeves in the Offing
Love Among The Chickens
Young Men In Spats
A Damsel In Distress
Uncle Dynamite
Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves
Aunts Aren't Gentlemen
The Coming of Bill
Indiscretions of Archie
The Clicking of Cuthbert
The Girl On The Boat
Sam The Sudden
Bill The Conqueror
The Small Bachelor
Heavy Weather
Eggs Beans and Crumpets
Nothing Serious
The Code Of The Woosters
Meet Mr Mulliner
Spring Fever
The Girl In Blue
Ukridge
Picadilly Jim
Money In The Bank
Big Money
Uneasy Money
The Little Nugget
Do Butlers Burgle Banks
Bachelors Anonymous
Just Leave It To Psmith
If I Were You
Hot Water
The Heart Of A Goof
The Mating Season
Thoroughly enjoyed the crossword with all the PGW references - thanks a ton, Kishore! Looking forward to part 2.
ReplyDeleteI am curious about why "I hear" is appended to the clue for PLUM - there's no homophone there, and the clue works well enough without it.
Thanks to DG for the blog.
Plum is a near homophonic short form of Pelham ...Did not want anyone bunging flowerpots at me for not giving an indicator. Abundant precaution as our banker and lawyer friends like to say.
DeletePlum was his nickname, and - AFAIK - it came about as a childish abbreviation of Pelham. I don't think it quite works as a homophone! Anyway, it's just a niggle.
DeleteLike I'm colourblind, I'm PGW ignorant!!!! That's why I left the theme detection to the reader
ReplyDeleteDoes it go on the apricot list?
DeleteDeepak, apart from your mustachioed resemblance to a certain Captain Biggar, I should also tell you about Major Brabazon-Plank. He is the younger brother of a miner. So the minor BP is a major and the major BP is a miner.
DeleteUnfortunately that statement will no longer be true when Maj BP gets promoted!!
DeleteDeepak, these authors like to keep their creations in limbo - no aging, no promotion - Archie, Bumstead, Calvin, Dennis , Commander Bond, ACP Pradyuman ....
DeleteGirl on the boat is on my table.
ReplyDeleteAmbiguous sentence with two 'on's .. is the girl on your table, Paddy?
DeleteOne of the 'On's is in the title and should have been within inverted commas, but I just let imagination run wild and it did. Seriously- call it coincidence or what- I have just started reading the book. Remember Churchill's reply when a reporter pointed out that his fly was open?
DeleteThank God you did not ask if the boat were on my table!
;-) The one about shutting the cage after the bird has died ....
DeleteOT:
ReplyDelete10 Pairing Asiatic tigers, initially protected by a Chinese dynasty (6) MATING {M{As...c}{Ti...s}ING}
Had been to Ranthambore Tiger Sanctuary, Rajasthan recently, and the other half of our group witnessed 10a.
How many Chinese were protecting them from the ogling tourists? :-)
DeleteNone. Actually it's the other way around. The forest staff protect the tigers from poachers sending it's remains to the Chinese.
DeleteBTW I too am colour blind, but I had an inkling that the theme today was in a way connected to PGW.
If you don't read at least one PGW, you really miss something. I hear quite a few 'aye's.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a lot of Ayes but mine is a Nay. However like our Honourable Speaker says in the LS nowadays 'The ayes have it, the ayes have it, the ayes have it, House adjourned'
DeleteAfter the adjournment of the House a lone voice shouted - Nay! That's mine!!
DeleteI hear you, Deepak ....
DeleteSurprising Col. is able to hear any words in that pandemonium- speaker's or anyone's.
ReplyDeleteMB- not counted since it is after adjournment.
As they say " It's all over bar the shouting!?"
DeleteBar did you say, MB? Lead me to it ...
DeleteI remember sometime back you said no Whisky & no Yoga! So how can I lead you to.....?!
DeleteYou, my dear MB, can take me to the bar ... but you can't make me drink ... Lead me to it is a common dialogue from Bertie Wooster
DeleteOne has to be a genteman's gentleman to understand subtle hints.
DeleteThank you K for samosas! :)))
ReplyDeleteFrom one Wodehouse fan to another
ReplyDelete"Pip,Pip".
Toodle-oo and Tinkerty tonk to you too, Jaggu
DeleteColonel, you may like Wodehouse if you read his books: loads of wit and worldly wisdom put in a naively clever manner. Even after 4 decades I remember certain passages like, "hell has no fury like a woman who wants her tea and can't get it".
ReplyDeleteKISHORE: UN DIT ! Your'e a Pundit. That Wodehousean ditty did it !!
ReplyDeleteBut alas, I cannot get to any of my collections as I'm far away from home. But you did give me a sense of nostalgia.
Those who have read Wodehouse have a sixth sense-- sense of HUMOUR ! which , do I read the good Col lacks?
Oh Raju, the Colonel does have a sense of humour! He may not find Wodehouse as a supplement to that ... That's all.... The first time I read Wodehouse (The Small Bachelor, around the age of 14) , I did not like it much. I probably did not understand quite a few bits fully. The second book was much better, though I do not recollect which one it was. And then I was hooked. But, even today, I don't like the schoolboy stories written by him.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your response, Kishore. As I know the Col well, I'm sure what keeps him going is his sense of humour , by his responses to humour and wit. He's laconic but certainly not moronic ! His one-liners are typical of his reserve and reticence.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your response, Kishore. As I know the Col well, I'm sure what keeps him going is his sense of humour , by his responses to humour and wit. He's laconic but certainly not moronic ! His one-liners are typical of his reserve and reticence.
ReplyDelete