No 12945, Tuesday 26 May 2020, Spinner

Day 63 of 68 Stay safe at home

(I am maintaining lockdown till 31 May)

Solution to 13A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular/novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

ACROSS
1   Unsettled ringmaster goes around calling those not doing their job from home, perhaps? (7,7) MIGRANT WORKERS {RINGMASTER}* over {WORK}

10 Art backer cutting loss before money diminishes (5) EASES {EASEl}{S}
11 Policy statement’s same, if not altered (9) MANIFESTO*
12 Doctor lot aren’t patient (8) TOLERANT*
13 Plague due to gathering after game (6) ?N?E?T (Addendum - INFEST {FEST}<=>{IN} - See comments)
15 Introduction to coronavirus : Once sick, no one’s keeping it quiet! (10) CONCEALING {Co...s}{ONCE}{AiLING}
16 Major sporting event up in the air (4) OPEN [DD]
19 “Pastries, a dozen of these for an Anna!” (4) PIES [DD]
20 Sick at home, cured on picking up Spinner special! (10) INDISPOSED {IN}{D{I}{SP}OSED}
23 Hasty mix-up involving money for transport vessels (6) YACHTS {YA{C}HTS*}
25 Committed establishment overcoming devilish law (8) STALWART {ST{LAW*}ART}
27 Presence of former flame entices unexpectedly (9) EXISTENCE {EX}{ENTICES*}
28 Yellowish mineral having traces of carbon and hydrogen (5) OCHRE {O{Ca...n}{Hy...n}RE}
29 Carriage patron saint arranged with love after unending struggle (14) TRANSPORTATION {PATRON+SAINT+O}* after {TRy}

DOWN
2   Silence on organized incivility (9) INSOLENCE*
3   Serve red cocktail cold (8) RESERVED*
4   Perhaps, Venus rover’s taking directions with computer network (2,4,4) NO MANS LAND {NOMAD} over {N}{S}{LAN}
5   Flash wife’s tattoo (4) WINK {W}{INK}
6   Concentrate on penalty (6) REFINE {RE}{FINE}
7   With no resistance, guarantee result (5) ENSUE ENSUrE
8   Cut/shaved with edges of table knife (7) SHORTEN {SHOR{Ta...fE}N}
9   Busy architect forgoing art for a change (6) HECTIC arCHITECt*
14 Allegation of India’s workers being forced into tight corners (10) INDICTMENT {INDIC}{Tig{MEN}hT}
17 Weird, is a topic involving husband’s nut (9) PISTACHIO {IS+A+TOPIC}* over {H}
18 With pressure, betray or reveal details (5,3) SPELL OUT {SELL OUT} over {P}
19 Compensation for extremely weary labourers overwhelmed by bug from the east (7) PAYMENT {TAP<=} over {w..rY}{MEN}
21 Hesitate as date’s here, topless (6) DITHER {D}{hITHER}
22 Data includes upper level (6) STATUS {STAT{U}S}
24 Tea infused with peeled mint in earthenware (5) CHINA {CH{mINt}A}
26 Cross domain token revealed (4) INTO [T]

Reference List
Money = S, Spinner = I, Special = SP, Money = C, Wife = W, On = RE, Resistance = R, Husband = H, Pressure = P, Date = D, Upper = U, Tea = CHA

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Ram Pershad was one of those numerous MIGRANT WORKERS from Bihar, who led a hand-to-mouth EXISTENCE in the bastis of Delhi. He naturally could not put any money away for the rainy day from his meagre PAYMENT. On March 24th when the lockdown was announced to contain the spread of coronavirus, that deadly scourge from CHINA, he assumed that it would be only for a week or two and thought he could manage staying behind in Delhi. Well, that was not to be- the lockdown extended INTO the second phase and he was looking for TRANSPORTATION to go back to his village in Samastipur. The Delhi Government had not clearly SPELT OUT its evacuation plan and whether the bus service would OPEN or not.  So, without DITHERing any further, he bundled his paltry belongings on his head and started walking the 1000 km to his village, TOLERANT of the hunger and the heat.   On the outskirts of Delhi, a relief camp had been put up to EASE the hunger of the masses but the HECTIC efforts by volunteers proved insufficient and the food supplied got over in a WINK.   Add to that the INSOLENCE of the officials, who were keener on delivering the right soundbites to the media, rather than actually helping out the hapless.

Ram Pershad reached the Delhi UP border but the UP officials permitted no one to enter. He spent a night at the NO MAN’S LAND between the two states. He was too tired to notice that the place was INFESTed with mosquitoes and he fell asleep in an instant. He had a dream of a yogi with a REFINEd demeanor, dressed in an OCHRE robe, awakening him and guiding him to a RESERVED seat on a luxury bus. What do they say about the power of dreams? There was no CONCEALING of his joy when he woke up and found that the UP government had indeed arranged buses to SHORTEN their journey home.  Ram Pershad was in no doubt about the STATUS of the man he saw in his dream, are you?