No 13412, Friday 26 Nov 2021, Incognito

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ACROSS

8   Ignoble like e or 10 (4) BASE [DD]

9   European married in Southern Europe (5) SWEDE {S}{WED}{E}

10 Father’s in American tree (4) UPAS {U{PA}S}

11 Second knight had first dance and moved in a gliding way (6) SKATED {S}{K}{ATE}{Dance}

12 Last word in a line (8) TERMINAL {TERM}{IN}{A}{L}

13 Target of the Fallschirmjager? Let fall Zulu on England (4,4) DROP ZONE {DROP}{Z}{ON}{E}

15 Dog me, for example (6) SETTER [DD]

17 See old boy begin to play tennis (7) OBSERVE {OB}{SERVE}

19 Combat wear carried around a long distance (7) WARFARE {WAR{FAR}E*}

22 Golly! Confused about first compound intermediate between glycerine and alcohol? (6) GLYCOL {GLY{Co...d}OL*}

24 Replied, “One small, weak deer was injured” (8) ANSWERED {AN}{S}{W}{DEER*}

26 Relating to a group of peoples’ state after thine break down (8) ETHNICAL {THINE*}{CAL}

28 Bear expenses of a couple of ladies having fish (6) AFFRAY {A}{F}{F}{RAY}

30 Japanese redcap has high class hop (4) JUMP {J}{U}{MP}

31 Group of soldiers return poor model (5) TROOP {POOR}{T}<=

32 Queue’s left Indian exasperated, to begin with (4) LINE {L}{IN}{Ex...d}

DOWN

1   Parcel’s initially confiscated in Pakistan (4) PACK {PA{Co...d}K}

2   Make sixfold production of telex and UPS (8) SEXTUPLE {TELEX+UPS}*

3   Familiar with second-hand shirt opening in the front (4,2) USED TO {USED}{T}{Op...g}

4   Milder man gets fifty English roses to start with (7) GENTLER {GENT}{L}{E}{Roses}

5   State: North-eastern king confiscates metal endlessly at first (8) NEBRASKA {NE}{BRASs}{K}{At}

6   Question is not whimsical (6) QUAINT {QU}{'AINT}

7   Short group of sentences from average article (4) PARA {PAR}{A} 

14 Engineers start to booby-trap the Spanish fighter (5) REBEL {RE}{Bo...p}{EL}

16 Spooky East European retainer is evil, for starters (5) EERIE Acrostic

18 Tempo of love spread by Raleigh, for example (8) VELOCITY {LOVE*}{CITY}

20 No charge before autumn in the US leads to rapid decline (8) FREEFALL {FREE}{FALL}

21 Plaything has three balls at the end of session (7) BALOON {BALL}{O}{O}{s...oN}

23 Copy an unusual awning (6) CANOPY*

25 Heady Indian souvenirs old Bob caught in front of the mountains (6) SCALPS {S}{C}{ALPS}

27 Gangster leaders of Tajikistan have Uranium? Good! (4) THUG Acrostic

By Bhargav

29 The Princess Royal residing in Bannerghatta (4) ANNE [T]

Reference List

Southern = S, Europe = E, Second = S, Knight = K, Line = L, Zulu = Z, England = E, Old = O, Boy = B, One = AN, Small + S, Weak = W, State = CAL, Ladies = F(Female), Japanese = J, High class = U, Redcap = MP(Military Police), Model = T,Left = L, Indian = IN, Shirt = T, Fifty = L, English = E, King = K, Question = QU, Average = PAR, Engineers = RE(Royal Engineers), The in Spanish = EL, Old Bob = S(Shilling), Caught = C

TalePiece

By Dr RKE

Gagandip Singh had volunteered for the PARA SF, an elite unit of the Indian Army. The training program for these paraTROOPers is so gruelling that all but 20% of the trainees drop out. They are made to get USED TO deprivation of water and food for a whole day and deprivation of sleep for 3 days at a stretch. Apart from OBSERVing the daily ritual of a 20km- run with a 10 kg backPACK and 7kg of arms, they are also trained in techniques of hand-to-hand combat, so essential in counter-insurgency operations where they have to engage armed REBELs and THUGs.

Only those with tremendous endurance and courage are chosen to JUMP from parachutes. The FREE FALL course requires at least 50 jumps from 33500 feet altitude. After taking off from the airBASE, the pilot ensures that the craft has attained the right height for the jump. To prevent icing of the fuel at that height, ethylene GLYCOL has to be added to the aviation fuel.  In the High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) technique, Gagandip easily attains a TERMINAL VELOCITY of 120 mph and he says at this stage he feels as if he is floating rather than falling, being wafted by the GENTLER wind- the air resistance matching the gravity. It must be such an EERIE feeling to crash towards Mother Earth from that height. As Gagandip nears the DROP ZONE, he has to tug the rip-cord at the precise moment, which is his life LINE. Viewed from the ground, it is a QUAINT throwback to the images you have seen of the D-Day drops at Normandy, the sky being dotted with the BALLOONing CANOPY of the numerous parachutes. Gagandip sometimes carries a dog, usually a SETTER, to assist him in search ops. In the LoAC at Ladakh, he has often landed on ice and has SKATED his way down.

The para regiments have ANSWERED every call to defend the country, sticking to their motto of Shatrujeet. On this 13th year after the 26-11 terror attacks in Mumbai, let us all thank the likes of Gagandip Singh in the Special Forces of the Indian army, because of whom we can sleep peacefully.