On a tour of Indian states with Afterdark.
ACROSS
1 Lunatic prayed Shah to reorganise central region (6,7) MADHYA PRADESH {MAD}{PRAYED+SHAH}*
10 Nanny's surname misspelt on ID (9) NURSEMAID {SURNAME*}{ID}
11 Concentrate first on career, upliftment, service primarily (5) FOCUS Acrostic
12 Dye layer is on new attire's tip (5) HENNA {HEN}{N
13 State of tragic hero in Indian epic at odds with king; sad essentially (9) KARNATAKA {KARNA}{AT*}{K}{
14 City Banks union follows advisory with keenness (6) ACUITY {C{U}ITY} after {A}
16 First smoke joint, float! No much bigger (4) SHIP {S
19 Gym cashier contributing to a non-profit organisation, say (4) YMCA [T] Enu should have been (1,1,1,1)
20 No luck breaking open (6) UNLOCK*
25 King's call up decoded in ship to procure headgears (9) SKULLCAPS {S{K}{CALL+UP}*S}
26 Jump a car without power/energy (5) CAPER {CA{P}{E}R}
27 L Sign (5) LIBRA [CD]
28 Buzzer gives a large projection to account for low loss at the beginning (5,4) ALARM BELL {A}{L}{ARM} {BE}{L
29 Good cocktail, drunk stores Ohio for shots, but not in the air (6,7) GROUND STROKES
DOWN
2 Agony aunt is after a point made by radical Ohio pilot (8) AERONAUT {A}{E}{R}{O}{AUNT*}
3 Bird having male chromosome mated with one animal (5) HYENA {H{Y}EN}{A}
4 A girl almost touched jumping snake at an American state (6) ALASKA {A}{LAS
5 Association for the inflamed and angry (3,5) RED CROSS {RED}{CROSS}
6 Terribly inflated, nothing in it. No, it is not inflation, just the opposite (9) DEFLATION {O} in INFLATED*
7 Significant other meets first lover, odd climax in get-together (6) SOCIAL {S
8 Our neighbour's hand broke, applied cream regularly (6) ANDHRA {HAND*}{
9 A service reciprocated by one of the seven sisters (5) ASSAM {A}{SSAM<=}
15 State ambiguously 'I’m an adult' (5,4) TAMIL NADU {I'M+AN+ADULT}*
17 Indian chef is coming up after Harry's daughter; she is one of the 29 (8)
18 Company representative gets permission to collect final due in total (8) COMPLETE {CO}{MP}{LET}{
21 Innovative lawbreaker, smuggles brew out of state (6) KERALA LA
22 Lighting lamps in prayer (5) PSALM*
23 Conductor of vehicle is at saloon (6) BUSBAR {BUS}{BAR}
24 Age, sex, location of worker sent across (6) ASLANT {A
26 Mercurial comedian stands out of din in a brief appearance (5) CAMEO COME
GRID
17 Indian chef is coming up after Harry's daughter; she is one of the 29 (8) SARABAND {SARA}BAN{D} Anno pending, if I'm right
ReplyDeleteI had filled in NAGALAND but unable to annotate it.
Brilliant. Is Indian chef: NALA? reverse that after NAG and followed by D
DeleteOne of the 29 states.
DeleteThanks MB & Raghu. I should have thought of that
Delete29 Good cocktail, drunk stores Ohio for shots, but not in the air (6,7) GROUND STROKES {G}{ROUND} {STRO{K}ES*} Anno not clear, K for Ohio?
ReplyDeleteG+ DRUNK+STORES around O. cocktail is*
Thanks Raghu
DeleteI'm in Coimbatore for my mothers 90th B'day today
ReplyDeleteWishes Colonel and prayers for a long and happy life. Have a great time. What an opportunity :)
DeleteThanks Shrikanth
DeleteShe should feel doubly happy- having her son come along to wish her at 90. Adding my prayers for a long healthy life.May she hit a century.
DeleteConvey my wishes Col
DeletePlease convey my best wishes
DeleteMay she score a century! Please convey my wishes Col Sir.
DeleteThanks Paddy, Ajeesh, Kishore and MB
DeleteWishes sir for her good health and happiness
DeleteMy wishes & namaskaar to your mom sir :)
DeleteThank you Lakshmi
DeleteThank you Srividya
Delete8D I am the neighbour? I thought The Hindu was a national paper.)).
ReplyDeleteAgreed. :) would My have made a bit of sense?
Deleteor neighbour of 15A.
DeleteSorry. 15D.
DeleteWhatever Nala did, he did not make samosa!
ReplyDeleteAt least from the theme I should have got the state of Nagaland. Well done MB & Raghu. Neighbours do well.
We are not your neighbours.
DeleteI was quoting AD. Neighbours normally live in the same street. So adjacent states could also be neighbours. Not necessarily adjacent countries.
DeleteI meant 'we' for us in Telangana.
DeleteA cousin of mine, an avid crossword solver, does not do the THC cw because he mistakenly believes the clues are Tamilnadised.
ReplyDeleteThe anagrams are brilliantly done. Even after filling I found it difficult to get the components in some.
ReplyDeleteFelt a little ashamed for my delay in getting 'Busbar' a word handled daily in electrical stream.
No such problem for me..could get busbar at a go having to deal with aluminum & copper busbars daily..as i work in an electrochemical plant profucing caustic soda & chlorine
DeleteI had thought of Padmanabhan while filling in BUSBAR.
DeleteMakes it harder to swallow. Thank you anyway.
DeleteWe thought of Aakash . He was 1 hr late to bar and made us wait by taking 335 E bus
DeleteDelicious samosa today too! Devoured it!! Thank you Afterdark. :-)))
ReplyDeleteHave a light lunch. Of late, you have been having quite a few samosas!! Keep it up.
DeleteHa! Just two only...yesterday and today...rest of the time...hardly any...of course a few now and then! :)
Delete29A- G (Drunk stores)*O
ReplyDeleteExactly what I meant in my 8.49.
Sorry. I did not see Raghu's earlier comment.
ReplyDeleteSurprised myself by completing tge puzzle in 20 min..started late at 8:30..superb tour of indian states with a heady cocktail of all clue types put in trademark AD style...
ReplyDeleteBest wishes, Col to your mother for turning 90.
ReplyDeleteThanks Raghu
DeleteColonel on 24D I used it from chat lingo. Remember 26 Female Kottayam ?
ReplyDeleteFree dictionary gives 'Neighbour states' as one of the def. So AD is not off the mark.
ReplyDeleteNagaland and Ground Strokes denied me samosas:(( - Otherwise an enjoyable one
ReplyDeleteNala Bheema pakam where Mala implies cook. Telugu and probably Sanskrit.
ReplyDeletePaddy, you miss the point. I meant that Andhra is a neighbour of TN but not for most of the other Indian States.
Yes - I was foxed since I live in Kolkata and read the local edition here
DeleteAD, What does 'Ohio' in 29A signify?
ReplyDeleteU I thought you had meant O for Ohio in your earlier post. ( I am not sure about its acceptability)
DeleteOhio is for O and also a name of a cocktail
DeleteCol, pl get your mother's blessings to all of us - I think all of us are less than 90!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ram, will do so
DeleteHappy Birthday to your dear Mom, Deepak. !! Spend as much time as you can with her and treat hr like a 09 !! God bless you and your Mom. Sapna joins me in this.
ReplyDeleteWhen I last saw her at your sister's she ddn't seem like nearing the nineties ! May her hit a century.
Thanks Raju and Sapna
Delete1A Is it ok to have 2 anagram indicators - Lunatic and reorganise
ReplyDeleteActually there are no two anag signals there. The solution is got by a charade which has a partial anagram (to classify the clue type).
DeleteMAD (lunatic) plus anag of ' prayed Shah' for which the anag signal is 'to reorganise'.
The Col has correctly indicated it in his anno in black following the soln in blue.
A couple of ingredients lacking for my samosa. BUSBAR got GROUNDed and gave me a STROKE.
ReplyDeleteSweet geographic xword from AD. Good tour of india though did expect sth above MP to appear in the north... didnt realise the neighbor was 8 and 15d :)tks for tat explanation.. yes perhaps the THC is a bit tamilized considering the lineage... but not unsolvable for others as well
ReplyDeleteCol. Namaskarams to your mother on her 90th birthday.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes from my family and self. May God grant her long life and good health.
DeleteThank you Bhargav and Richard
DeleteWish your mother many happy returns of the day, Deepak
ReplyDeleteThanks Suresh
DeleteNice puzzle. wonderful clues.12&25a nice.My cod is17d.The catch is in 29 and not 29a.wow.All stated, an engaging and entertaining puzzle. Thank you AD.
ReplyDeletePlease pass on my best wishes to your mother Colonel. We seek her blessings on this wonderful occasion.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sowmya, will do so
DeleteWish your mother many happy returns of the day, Colonel!
ReplyDeleteThank you PP, will do so
Delete