No 12930, Friday 08 May 2020, Incognito

Day 45 of 54 Stay safe at home

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ACROSS
8   Boy! An unknown female! (4) LADY {LAD}{Y}
9   Time with monsoon coach (5)  TRAIN {T}{RAIN}
10 I hear you can go back in one piece (4) UNIT (~you){U}{TIN<=}
11 Afraid of disfigurement on the skin, Edward? (6) SCARED {SCAR}{ED}
12 Union representative wearing shirt back to front wins (8) TRIUMPHS {TRI{U}{MP}HS<=}
13 Bury top class, primarily nutritional, cooking banana (8) PLANTAIN {PLANT}{A1}{Nu...l}
15 She is cross following old horse for Tamil comedian Gundu Rao (6) NAGESH {SHE*} after {NAG}

By Bhargav

17 Relatives circulate US coins (7) COUSINS*
19 Local win results in low price (7) BARGAIN {BAR}{GAIN}
22 Author returns travel permit (including a couple of pieces of money) (6) ASIMOV {ASI{MOney}V<=}
24 Drug dealers play chess with Tim (8) CHEMISTS*
26 Whips Supreme Court official initially and pushes (8) SCOURGES {SC}{Of...l}{URGES}
28 Order for a load of gunpowder and attack ward (6) CHARGE [MD]
30 Mail clerk, for example (4) POST [DD]
31 Agents to Utah shows, initially (5) TOUTS {TO}{UT}{Shows}
32 Mountain stake is put back (4) ETNA <=

DOWN
1   North American Roman Catholic's a drug enforcement officer in the US (4) NARC Acrostic
2   Hyde endlessly shouts, “Water dispensers” (8) HYDRANTS {HYDe}{RANTS}
3   Playgrounds data is corrupted (6) STADIA*
4   Drink shop in India (7) MARTINI {MART}{IN}{I}
5   Sign India, without a bit of doubt, consumes mixed gins (8) INSIGNIA {INd{GINS*}IA}
6   Spice Girl carries mad men around Union Territory (6) NUTMEG {N{UT}ME*}{G}

7   Affluent constituent of Guduvancheri, Chengalpattu taluk (4) RICH [T]
14 Robs John in front of Model School (5) LOOTS {LOO}{T}{S}
16 Fast bird — it can be used to send international financial messages (5) SWIFT [DD]
18 Find the way for a Russian tsar to retreat to entrance (8) NAVIGATE {IVAN<=}{GATE}
20 Dour masters give horrible expressions (8) GRIMACES {GRIM}{ACES}
21 Cast mimes (4,3) ACTS OUT {CAST}* [RA]
23 Climbs horses (6) MOUNTS [DD]
25 Remove tax on manufacture (6) EXCISE [DD]
27 Prepare food, using hundred eggs, before king (4) COOK {C}{OO}{K}
29 Grand peacekeeper’s peacemakers, for example (4) GUNS {G}{UNS}

Reference List

Unknown = Y, Time = T, Union = U, North = N, american = A, Roman Catholic = RC, India = I, Model = T, School = S, Hundred = C, King = K, Grand = G

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Tale of Nostalgia

The year was 1968. I went during the summer holidays for my first visit to Madras.  I stayed with my uncle at Chromepet. My uncle was working in the Department of POSTs and Telegraphs (P&T) but he had grown RICH because he had a side business of running a CHEMIST's shop. He had to do it on my aunt's name obviously. They had a telephone, a fridge and a Morris Minor car, all of which I was seeing for the first time. And they had a COOK at home!

My 2 COUSINS insisted that I should see the Safire theatre complex on MOUNT road. They had SCARED me stiff, about my first journey on an electric TRAIN, saying "if you are not SWIFT to hop into or out of  the train, the train starts off and picks up speed before you get to the door". By the time we reached for the matinee,  no ticket was available at the 70mm theatre Safire, for "Barabbas", an epic movie, my cousin told me, that was shot on Mount ETNA. My older cousin approached some TOUTS but their CHARGE was beyond what we could pay. He did try and BARGAIN, but we did not know then that the tickets sold in black would be charged much less a few minutes after the movie started. I had my misgivings about the 'fire' in the name of the cinema, my fear re-inforced by the huge HYDRANT in the foyer. Anyway, I remember telling my cousins " I can't make out the head or tail of an English movie". I suspected that they were also in the same boat, but were too snobbish to accept it.

So, I was rather relieved when my other cousin suggested we go to "Adhey Kangal", a thriller colour movie in the much better named Emerald theatre, the only UNIT to screen vernacular movies in this complex of 3 theatres. That was before the word "multiplex" was invented. Naturally, the movie had already begun and we had a man with a tiny torch light who helped us NAVIGATE in the darkness to our seats. I was surprised that there was no one selling snacks, cool drinks (called "colour" those days) or PLANTAINS within the movie hall, unlike in the tent cinema back in our village. This movie had some hilarious scenes, where NAGESH ACTS OUT the role of an Anglo Indian LADY. Oh, those false GRIMACES, the pouts and the airs he (she) put on were rib-tickling. I don't remember much else from the movie, but the feeling of TRIUMPH of having been to Safire in Madras was something I could boast about to my village friends.