No 13405, Thursday 18 Nov 2021, Avtaar

Solution to 5A 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   Steamed potato stuffed with head of red turnip, perhaps? (7) TAPROOT {TAP{Red}OOT*}

5   Fusion of eggs in salad of green Alphonso mango for starters with topping of  yoghurt (7) ?S?G?M? (Addendum - ISOGAMY Acrostic {plus Yo...t} - See comments. Also see comments of setter for change in wording of this clue and 17A) 

10 Old British island state (4) OMAN {O}{MAN}

11 Tea caddy business reported by Spooner (10) DARJEELING (~jar dealing)

12 Information label in short document by Republican about blocking Quantitative Easing (1,1,4)  Q R CODE {DOC}{R}<= in {QE}

13 In a cryptic sense, it’s a pen (8) NOVELIST {ITS}* [RA] Semi&lit

14 Complex rubber getting removed by cleansing chemical element (9) ALUMINIUM (-condom+alum)ALUMINIUM

16 The 25th building in a block could be one (5) UNITY {UNIT}{Y}

17 Historic march within Delhi’s outskirts (5) DANDI {AND} in {DelhI}

19 Master admitting caliph’s first wayward son is taking over (9) ACCESSION {AC{Ca...h}E}{IS+SON}*

23 Range of old, abandoned computers getting transported (8) SPECTRUM {CoMPUTERS}*

24 Jerk damaged case of the pump (6) MUPPET {ThE+PUMP}*

26 Ideas incompletely conveyed by London daily about religious texts (10) SENTIMENTS {SENt}{TIME{NT}S}

27 Cross on the right of parrot’s crest (4) APEX {X}<=>{APE}

28 A female cuts way close to trees for squirrels (7) STASHES {A}{SHE} in {ST}{t..eS}

29 Boring creature — mere tit, possibly? (7) TERMITE*

DOWN

2   Most respected non-British commander (7) ADMIRAL  ADMIRAbLe

3   Refrain’s opening being supported by party music (5) RONDO {Re...n}{ON DO}

4   Dal served with bone china plate in East End (3,4) OLD BEAN {DAL+BONE}*

6   Swing delivery gets wicket (6) SWERVE {S{W}ERVE}

7   Hawk ascending over Bond’s playing area (4,5) GOLF LINKS {FLOG<=}{LINKS}

8   Torn denims and shirt shows attitude (7) MINDSET {DENIMS}*{T}

9   I say “Unite” in declaration (13) PRONOUNCEMENT {PRONOUN}{CEMENT}

15 A CID meets criminal for drugs (9) MEDICATES*

18 Most extensive cycling test before start of tournament (7) AMPLEST {(-s)AMPLE(+s)S}{To...t}

20 As one rising in business, am nervous (2,5) EN MASSE [T<=]

21 Pig out in open crossing meadow after bypassing lake (7) OVEREAT {OVER{lEA}T}

22 Revolutionary Austen protagonist supporting German resistance unit (6) GRAMME {EMMA<=}<=>{G}{R}

25 Lines up salmagundi plates (5) PSALM [T<=]

Reference List

Old = O, Republican = R, Rubber = CONDOM, Religious texts = NT, British = B, Party = DO, Wicket = W, Shirt = T, Lake = L, German = G, Resistance = R

TalePiece

By Dr RKE

ADMIRAL Vineet Varma (VV) has settled in DARJEELING after a glorious career in the Indian Navy. Your MINDSET about a retired serviceman is one who spends a jolly time at the club with some OLD BEANs. Our man is different.  He spends his mornings putting in the Army GOLF LINKS. He is never known to OVEREAT and so he has not gained a GRAMME after retirement. What really sets him apart from many such officers in Darjeeling is that for 3 hours before lunch every day he sits religiously at his desk writing, as he works on his third book, “Power of UNITY”.  

 

You might have heard of a NOVELIST who goes by the nom de plume of DANDI. This is the new AVTAAR of our retired admiral, who chose this - the name of the 6^th century Sanskrit grammarian and story teller- as his pen name, because his first book was a historical fiction-thriller set in Harshavardhana’s times. The PRONOUNCEMENT of the literary critics was that his work had not SWERVEd widely from facts, while spinning an engaging fantastic tale. They extolled the SPECTRUM of the SENTIMENTS of the characters that he portrayed vividly, which is a rarity in this genre- most others rely only on the twists and turns in the plot to engage the reader.

 

Naturally, working on sequels meant that he had to read a lot, which he did every afternoon at the Deshbandu District Library. No, don’t think of an old library with TERMITE ridden shelves and sepia books with crumbling pages. This library is so modern that it has managed to even replace the ACCESSION numbers on the books with Q R CODEs. This is also the venue of the History Club and STASHed away in its ALUMINIUM shelves are priceless well-preserved gems from the British era that are not lent out- you may only read them in the library.  This regular reading has given the admiral the AMPLEST scope to base his writings on. VV reads there until he hears the PSALMs being sung at the vespers from the St.Andrew’s church nearby, to the accompaniment of RONDO Capriccioso by the organist. He feels he is at the APEX of his creative thinking during the long solitary walk back home.   

On reaching home, he hurries to his desk to put down all the ideas that were brewing in his head during the walk. All this rigorous effort forms the TAP ROOT on which the tree of his literary output draws nourishment. Let us wish him well, for the upcoming book release that has been planned by his publishers also at Muscat, OMAN among other venues. May his tribe flourish.