No 12983, Thursday 09 Jul 2020, Gussalufz

Solution to 7D 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
9   Gourmet rice, pan-fried after adding slices of unripe eggplant (9) EPICUREAN {RICE+PAN}* over {Un...e} and {Eg...t}
10 Cat, in no uncertain... (5) OUNCE [T]
11 ... terms, gets all excited about a ball. Genius! (7) MAESTRO {M{A}STRE*}{O}
12 Posh bureaucrats going around smoking pot? Heavens! (7) UTOPIAS {U}{IAS} over {POT*}
13 Kenya’s aquifer borders a lake in Tanzania (5) NYASA [T]
14 Who gets this famous piece of self-indulgence not long after the onset of 16!? Lucky! (9) MONOLOGUE [CD/GK]
16 Artificially good writing oft overwhelms a play (7,3,5) WAITING FOR GODOT {GOOD+WRITING+OFT}* over {A}
19 Old bards imbibing a couple of quarters for powers (9) EXPONENTS {EX}{PO{N}E{N}TS}
22 Drunk is outside Gussalufz’s control (5) LIMIT {L{I'M}IT}
24 Think of emailing about student dropping out (7) IMAGINE EMAIlING*
26 Resort misses out on a turn to shine (7) SPANGLE {SPa}{ANGLE}
27 Tabassum acknowledged filming this masala (5) SUMAC [T]

28 Somehow, I'll get him publicity (9) LIMELIGHT*

DOWN
1   Then I’m revising returns to reveal these bad actors! (6) VERMIN [T<=]
2   Scholars limitlessly reprimand one after missing half a test (8) LITERATI {bERATe}{1} after {LITmus}
3   Hailing from a southern region, cook is a natural! (10) AUSTRALIAN*
4   Naughtily dream of removing a buckle (6) DEFORM {DREaM+OF}*
5   Subtle implication of union representation over termination (8) INNUENDO {INNU{END}O*}
6   Chant in an upside-down position while drinking juice to make magic (4) MOJO {OM<=} over {OJ}
7   When wife’s gone ahead for baseball event (6) ?N?I?G (Addendum - INNING - wINNING - See comments)
8   Confirm backslide after idiot has replaced leading virologist (8) REASSERT RE(-v+ass)ASSERT
15 She might try upright beer and beer laced with a bit of gin (5,5) LEGAL EAGLE {LEG}{ALE}{A{Gin}LE}
16 Tiny pizza gets disheartened student crying as hard as possible (8) WEEPIEST {WEE}{PIE}{St...nT}
17 With great care, drink frothy lager, avoiding a spray, ultimately (8) GINGERLY {GIN}{LaGER*}{s..aY}
18 Heartless guy running wild with mad ego provides manipulative leadership (8) DEMAGOGY {GuY+MAD+EGO}*
20 Samuel’s play’s sin? Misinterpreting this stellar material in Ulysses! (6) PLASMA [CA]{sAMuels+PLAys+Sin}*
21 Reuses a mediocre, exposed, old password, partially (6) SESAME [T]
23 XX film of tomorrow — admission not restricted! (6) TWENTY {To...oW}{ENTrY}
25 The computer industry’s leading currencies: hryvnia and yen (4) ITCH {IT}{Cu...s}{Hy...a}

Reference List
Posh = U, Quarter = N, Student = L, Juice = OJ(Orange Juice), Wife = W, Restricted = R

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Palghat Mahadeva Iyer sits cross-legged on the floor performing anga-NYASA, touching the 12 parts of the body, reciting the appropriate mantras while doing the oblations to his ancestors on this new moon day. This is followed by dropping water GINGERLY from a silver container over a handful of black SESAME seeds. A young man is watching the ritual intently with fascination.

Looking at Mahadeva Iyer with his bare-bodied, ash-smeared obese frame in this posture, one would scarce IMAGINE that here was the most famous LEGAL EAGLE of the Thiruvananthapuram bar. During his long INNINGs, the LIMELIGHT had always been on him, with junior lawyers ITCHing to hear his flawless utterances in flowing language. The subtle INNUENDOes that SPANGLEd his arguments, directed at the opposite party’s counsel were a stuff of legend. In these days when lawyers (not to mention, judges) hardly belong to the LITERATI, Mahadeva Iyer was able to intersperse his MONOLOGUES in court with appropriate quotes from the classical works of English, Sanskrit, Tamil and Malayalam. As is the rule with his species, he was an EPICUREAN and a MAESTRO in Carnatic music.

His fervent hope was that his only son, Gopalakrishnan, would step into his shoes some day when the young man joined the law college. As it happens often, a man who is held in high esteem outside of his home, does not appear an ideal hero to his children.  Notwithstanding all the effort that Mahadeva Iyer spent on grooming his son to be a practicing lawyer, Kris (for, he had thus shortened his name) was only interested in a corporate career. Mahadeva Iyer was drained of his last OUNCE of energy, trying to convince Kris, trying to paint an UTOPIAN picture of a wonderful career in the Thiruvananthapuram bar. Even the WEEPIEST protestations from Smt. Chandrika, his mother, did not stop Kris from REASSERTing his will. He went abroad to  work for an AUSTRALIAN company, married and settled there never to return to his home town.

Mahadeva Iyer, pushed to the LIMITs of despair, felt that he and his wife were rather like Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett’s WAITING FOR GODOT.

You can imagine how EXPONENTial their joy was, when Kris’s son, a strapping youth of TWENTY (who naturally had the genes of Mahadeva Iyer in his PLASMA and every cell),  became fed up with Western culture and sought to return to his roots in India.  So, it is this young man, the junior Mahadevan (Dave to his friends back in Australia), who sits today watching the oblation. He has already absorbed much of the ancient wisdom from his grandpa. He enjoys the delights of Palghat dishes from his grandma. He has started to play the veena. Dave looks set to step into his illustrious grandfather’s shoes, if not in legal circles, at least in all other things dear to the aging luminary.