No 13406, Friday 19 Nov 2021, Karaoke

GURPURAB GREETINGS

Artwork by Prasanna

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ACROSS

1   Obsessed with H-bombs regularly shown in short film (6) PHOBIC {P{HbOmBs}IC}

5   Rated exchange (8) TRADEOFF {RATED}* [RA]

9   Rich source of mining wealth initially carried in gondola at sea (8) GOLCONDA {Ca...d} in {GONDOLA}*

10 It’s poisonous material spreading around old city (6) DATURA {DAT{UR}A}

11 Harry Potter’s mom at after-the-event discussion (4-6) POST-MORTEM*

12 A boring person never misses first opportunity on review (4) YAWN {No WAY}<=

13 Ruler from Arabia/Middle East originally queen? (5) AMEER {Ar...a}{Mi...e}{East}{ER}

14 Write about the greatest Asian language (6) NEPALI {PEN<=}{ALI}

17 Model’s second prize carries one thousand dollars (4-2) MOCK-UP {MO}{C{K}UP}

19 Reported enticement at the place of omission (5) CARET (~carrot)

22 Above 1-16/26? (4) ATOP {A to P of Alphabets}

24 This settlement is not to the liking of lawyers maybe (3-2-5) OUT-OF-COURT [CD]

25 Very small and easy thing to watch a sentimental movie (6) WEEPIE {WEE}{PIE}

26 It is natural to join forces again mostly, provided England first joins (4,4) REAL LIFE{RE-ALLy}{IF}{En...d} 

27 Cut off reconstructed agreements ignoring emerging markets primarily (8) ESTRANGE {AGREemENTS}*

28 Swimming sturgeons got off the sharks (6) NURSES StURgEoNS*

DOWN

2   Headdress with spectacles? It brings bad luck (6) HOODOO {HOOD}{00}

3   Change your mind, God! (9) BACKTRACK {DOG<=}

4   Ignore the wrongdoing of bluff master at the end (7) CONDONE {CON}{DON}{thE}

5   Defector damaged portrait defacing party leader (7) TRAITOR pORTRAIT*

6   Bread-basket comes with incredibly bad warning (7) ABDOMEN {BAD*}{OMEN}

7   Record 100 but essentially caught out (5) ENTRY cENTuRY 

8   Take care of meals, first of all, when eating light lunch (8) FAREWELL {FARE}{When}{Ea...g}{Li..t}{Lu..h}

15 Poor literary work can go to fireplace (3-6) POT-BOILER {POT}{BOILER}

16 The strong point about the first rocket ship is fastness (8) FORTRESS {FORT{Ro...t}E}{SS}

18 Organic compound for youngster reportedly (7) PROTEIN {PRO}{TEIN(~teen)}

19 Lake bed before exclusive circle? (7) COTERIE {ERIE}<=>{COT}

20 Stop song (7) REFRAIN [DD]

21 Thief’s initial search for big bucks? Quite the contrary (6) TRIFLE {Th...f}{RIFLE}

23 Very poor person needs essential fruit daily (5)  PAPER PAuPER

Reference List

Old city = UR, The Greatest = Mohammed ALI, Second = MO, One thousand dollars = K, Spectacles = 00, Caught = C, Ship = SS 

TalePiece

By Dr RKE

It was well past midnight and I was on duty as a young intern in the Accident & Emergency ward of Osmania General Hospital. The NURSES tried hard to suppress their YAWN. I was lazily turning the pages of the WEEPIE novel I had in my hand for want of anything else to read. How I wished I could have a bite on my favourite PROTEIN bar?

All on a sudden the ENTRY of a police ambulance siren into the portico perked us all up. The policemen off-loaded a young man in his late twenties on a stretcher but had a tough time holding him down to it.  They had to call the NEPALI watchman in the hospital to assist them in restraining the patient. I noted that the patient was ranting like a madman, his fair skin was red and it burned like hell’s fire and for all the febrile delirium, he had not a drop of sweat. It was obvious he could not see or make eye contact with anyone.  The policemen said they had found him to have fallen from ATOP the walls of the GOLCONDA FORTRESS and that they had identified him as AMEER Mohamed from his wallet.  

The nurses followed the Standard Operating Protocol- collect blood for tests, start an IV drip, pass a tube through the nose into the ABDOMEN and another to the bladder, but all the while my mind raced through all sorts of possibilities. Head injury? An apoplexy? Meningitis? None of the MOCK UPs that had been done in final year medical school had prepared me for this live emergency. I tried to REFRAIN from calling for help but the head nurse Mrs. Shanthamma, realised that I was flummoxed and told me firmly “Doctor, please call Prof. Srinivas Rao, the on-call senior consultant”. He had already nicknamed me the HOODOO, because I had to wake him from his slumber every night for the past week to give him some bad news or the other.  He listened to my blurting out something and simply said “give the phone to Shanthamma”. He obviously trusted her more. The patient was wheeled out to the ICU and with a deflated ego and  not just a TRIFLE pissed off, I simply called up the senior resident in the ICU to hand over the case and plonked myself on the chair to snooze.

The next morning on rounds, Dr.Srinivas Rao berated me and my ilk. “What is wrong with you fellows? In your answer PAPERs, you all write that the symptoms of atropine poisoning- mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as a hare, dry as a bone and blind as a bat. But I cannot CONDONE you for failing to recognise it when you see an actual case. Had I not spoken to Shanthamma, you would well be doing the POST MORTEM on this patient. One night of stomach drainage, ventilation, neostigmine, fluid therapy and tepid sponging has turned him around.” So saying, he left in a huff. The rich parents, who were traced by the morning, shifted him to a 5- star private hospital. I heard that they paid the police handsomely to keep the matter OUT OF COURT.

I learnt later that this patient had had psychiatric issues including some PHOBIC behaviour. He had been a ganja addict and he had smoked weed that had been laced with DATURA, to heighten the psychedelic effect. Datura, the jimson weed of the nightshade family, I recalled contains atropine like alkaloids such as scopolamine and hyoscyamine that stimulate the brain and block the parasympathetic nervous system.

It is up to you to decide if this tale is a REAL-LIFE incident or just taken out of a POTBOILER. So long FAREWELL and adieu, till I meet with you with another tale, another day.