No 12925, Saturday 02 May 2020, Arden

Day 39 of 54 Stay safe at home

ACROSS
1   Restraining — did perhaps break the law by doing it (7,7) INSIDER TRADING {RESTRAINING+DID*}
10 Rob’s returned to seat (5) STOOL {LOOT}{S}<=
11 Harp on shifting time — there are many wards here (9) ORPHANAGE {HARP+ON*}{AGE}
12 Aversion for amount of work partner accepts (7) ALLERGY {ALL{ERG}Y}
13 Follow girl with flower (3,4) DOG ROSE {DOG}{ROSE}
14 Pushed the horse, wading in up river (5) EGGED {GG} in {DEE}<=
16 Doctor must inject drug, there is some change in swelling (9) TUMESCENT {MUST*} around {E}+{CENT}
19 Metal can’t upset a cowboy (9) CATTLEMAN {METAL+CANT}
20 Trainer’s had a change of heart, gets a comfortable seat (5) COUCH {CO(-a+U)CH}
22 Crossover the sides and repeat... (7) ITERATE {I{ThE}RATE}
25 ... work is heavy at the religious academy (7) YESHIVA {IS+HEAVY*}
27 Crafty ideas to acquire money — area where the British set up shop (4,5) EAST INDIA {IDEAS*} around {TIN}+{A}
28 Term’s somewhat lost in translation (5) STINT (T)
29 All ten swirling around — no holds barred here (3-2,9) ALL IN WRESTLING {ALL}{TEN+SWIRLING*}

DOWN
2   In the dark, may be lone source of illumination (4,5) NEON LIGHT {N{LONE*}IGHT}
3   Loafer may go around dreamily (5) IDLER {MAY+IDLER*}= {DREAMILY}
4   Sweetheart, stop getting snug with the surroundings (9) ECOSYSTEM {swEet}{COSY}{STEM}
5   Maybe tide over initial problems, not too hot to handle (5) TEPID {TIDE*] over {Problem}
6   Current carrying electronic signal turns out to be a pain reliever (9) ANALGESIC {A{E+SIGNAL*}C}
7   I had taken up old state (5) IDAHO {I}{HAD<=}{O}
8   Great! one’s gone for sure — was the oldest (7) GREYEST {GRE{-a+YES}T}
9   Property dispute ended on land... (6) ESTATE {disputE}{STATE}
15 ...and a Tamil version could be a pet possession (9) DALMATIAN {AND+A+TAMIL*}
17 He’s loaded one in my luggage (9) MONEYBAGS {M{ONE}Y}{BAGS}
18 Somehow tried to get top university — no one came up with scholarship (9) ERUDITION {TRIED*} around {University}+{NO}{I} <=
19 Fish caught by him over time (7) CHIMERA {C}{HIM}{ERA}

21 Home under hard ground (6) HEARTH {H}{EARTH}
23 Tea-seller’s got a stand (5) EASEL (T)
24 Wood dock workers use essentially (5) ELDER {wELDERs}?
26 Sails woven with fibre (5) SISAL {SAILS*}

Reference List

Amount of work=Erg, Horse=GG, River=Dee, Drug=E, Money=Tin, Area=A
Current=AC, Electronic=E, Old=O, One=A, One=I, Caught=C, Time=Era, Hard=H

Colour/Font Scheme

Definition, Solution, Component letters, Embedded links, Theme word,  Anagram Indicator, C/C indicator, Reversal Indicator, Hidden word Indicator, Letter Pick indicator, Deletion Indicator, Homophone Indicator, Movement Indicator, Positional Indicator, Substitution, Indicator, Opposite indicator, Link/Connector, Extraneous

Dr RKE's TalePiece

The year was 1834. Calcutta was becoming the nerve centre of commerce under John Beard ELDER, who had a brief STINT as the Agent of the EAST INDIA company for Bengal. The fledgling Calcutta stock exchange was just a COUCH and a STOOL under a neem tree, where only Europeans traded every Wednesday. This was where the Englishmen shed their veneer of civility in their greed for making a fast buck and the scenes resembled an ALL-IN WRESTLING match. Unlike in the modern bourse, apart from shares of British companies, there was also direct trading of commodities such as jute (a substitute for SISAL), muslin cloth, produce of the CATTLEMeN and even real ESTATE.  This needed a link between the native Indian producers and the English speculators. That connection was provided by Shalom Sassoon (SS), an Aleppo Jew, who was permitted into the exchange as he was fair skinned. He used his CHIMERA status (half European, half native) to advantage.  His intimate contacts on both sides of the colour divide, gave him an unique advantage in those days when INSIDER TRADING was not a crime and soon SS became one of the MONEYBAGS in the Jewish community of Calcutta. 

Having come from a family known for its ERUDITION, SS did not use all his money on just his home and HEARTH. He built a synagogue, a YESHIVA for Talmudic studies and an ORPHANAGE. I must reITERATE that it was his wife Hannah, who EGGED him on to do such charity work. They stepped in during the GREYEST hour of the Calcutta floods, when the TUMESCENT waters of the Hooghly inundated the low-lying slums. The ALLERGY of the East India company for helping out the poor was well-known and so the response of the administration to the crisis was TEPID.  It was left to the Jewish couple to provide shelter to the homeless in the synagogue. They both fell a victim to the cholera that followed and were buried near the synagogue. A single DOG ROSE plant marks their burial spot to this day, even though the Jewish community of the present Kolkata is only a dozen or so.