Solution to 5D 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 Husband and wife sharing dessert hamper (6) THWART {T{H}{W}ART}
4 He needs leadership to suppress independent university? (6) HELIUM {HEL{I}{U}M}
9 Death wish? (4) WILL [C&DD]
11 Warrior takes a day to capture Arizona (6) AMAZON {A}{M{AZ}ON}
12 Subjects missing Oscar succeed reflecting on society (8) DWELLERS {Do WELL}{RE<=}{S}
13 Where some connect virtually all day long? (9) CHATROOMS [CD]
15 Princess acquires the Spanish restaurant (4) DELI {D{EL}I}
16 Japanese wine with one in place of English writer (4) SAKI SAK(-e+i)I
17 As per Spooner, brand popular for portable furniture (9) CAMPSTOOL (~stamp cool to campstool)
24 Review study probing liver? (10) RECONSIDER {RE{CON}SIDER}
26 Have three letters in sequence in front to baffle (6) DEFEAT {DEF}{EAT}
27 Impressed others with the man’s daughter (6) ETCHED {ETC}{HE}{D}
DOWN
1 After overwhelming Italy, surpass Hungary for victory (7) TRIUMPH {TR{I}UMP}{H}
2 Last letter following say Disney’s dance (5) WALTZ {WALT}{Z}
3 Routine mostly affected with new strike (3,4) RUN INTO {ROUTINe+N}*
5 Large woman’s light here? (6) E?E?E? (Addendum - ELEVEN Definition by example - See comments)
6 Current report by doctor etc. makes sense (9) INTELLECT {IN}{TELL|}{ETC*}
8 Day America’s dream was set to take on Cinema’s top honours (7,6) ACADEMY AWARDS {DAY+A+DREAM+WAS+Ci...a}* &lit
16 Reverend’s tiny source for marine alga, say (7) SEAWEED (~wee seed to seaweed)
18 Favourite wraps from fried fish (7) POMFRET {P{FROM*}ET}
19 Cook greens initially boiled as required (7) OBLIGED {Gr...s+BOILED}*
20 Almost all MPs regularly sucking blood (6) PLASMA {AlMoSt+AlL+mPs}<=
23 Metal’s tip poking bruised this worker (5) SMITH {S{Me..l}ITH}
Reference List
Husband = H, Wife = W, Independent = I, University = U, Old = O, Oscar = O, On = RE, Society = S, The in Spanish = EL, English = E, Ocean = O, Daughter = D, Italy = I, Hungary = H, New = N, America = A
NARAYANA IYER - Palakkattu Appa
ReplyDeleteToday I want to write about Palakkattu Appa, my maternal great grandfather. I used to visit him regularly till I was about 7 years of age, every summer.
Even though I had OBSERVED Appa at close quarters, it was a child's perspective. Only after growing up, I realised how ahead of his times he was & how true to his principles. Typical of his generation, he owned a lot of agricultural land. But farming did not interest him at all. It was his wife who managed all the land related issues. I had never seen, nor heard of Appa showing any DOMINANCE over Amma or any of the labour who worked for him. Infact he was totally devoid of any EGOTISM of being a landlord & repeatedly AVERRED, "You can't ENSLAVE the people who work for you. It is the land that is feeding them & not you!"
In those days, he had gone to England as a VICENARIAN to study & was a certified Barrister of Law. Yet it was literature that was his passion. On returning home, he UNDERWENT a change of heart, partly because he found Law to be an IGNOBLE profession in British times & decided Teaching would be his profession. Thus he spent his days as a school master in Palakkadu. He had many foreign friends & kept an OPEN HOUSE for his local erudite friends. I remember, once, a MARINER friend of his came to visit all the way from LIEGE, who brought with him bottles of gin & vermouth. He insisted on making his own MARTINI & having it, just before a full fledged Palakkadu Saddi Sappadu.
Appa had a huge house in Palakkadu, a typical Tarawadu, its clerestory had a row of round windows or OCULI. The house had a huge Library with thousands of books in English, Sanskrit, Malayalam & Tamil. There were many rare autographed original editions jostling for space with hand written manuscripts in palm leaves.
Appa was the first English teacher to all his children, grand children & great grand children. Thanx to him, I could write full sentences in English, by the time I was four. This, of course, created a lot of problems for me in my regular school in Delhi. But in his own gentle way, he was a hard taskmaster. He tolerated no FLAPDOODLING. Punctuation was important & we learnt the usage of semi colon, colon & APOSTROPHE from him, much before we heard the terms in our schools. Maths to him, was not all that important. It was more like a BREATHER, in between English lessons. Once when I tried to play TRUANT, he introduced me to Tom Sawyer & Mark Twain. Such was his story telling capability that he mesmerised us with his stories. He was also a great MIMER, who could imitate Charlie Chaplin & have us in splits.
He introduced me to Ramayana & Mahabharata & HOMER's Iliad & Odyssey. Inspite of his lack of passion for farming, he had huge pictorial books about FLORA & Fauna across the world & I still remember the glossy pictures of CONIFERS & CACTI, that I saw almost half a century back. Appa also created, in each one of us, an abiding love of books & passion for reading. I can still smell the SEBUM from the leather bound books in his Library.
As time passed, Amma left us & it became clear that none of Appa's children wanted to take care of the land. His 4 sons were professionals & bureaucrats, who resided in metros. His only daughter was married to a school teacher who worked in Chennai. Amma had 3 trusted families who took care of all the farm work & Ayya Kutty with a pronounced LIMP, had been her trusted aide.
20d is 'sucking' the reversal indicator?
ReplyDeleteHas to be. Not quite happy with it.
DeleteFrom Free Dictionary out of several meanings....
DeleteSucking = Intake, Uptake.
uptake (ˈʌpˌteɪk)
n
1. (Building) a pipe, shaft, etc, that is used to convey smoke or gases, esp one that connects a furnace to a chimney
2. (Mining & Quarrying) mining another term for upcast2
3. taking up or lifting up.
Note point number 3
DeleteThanks Mukundala ji. That's how I had intended it.
Delete
ReplyDeleteWhen Appa's children decided to sell the land & divide it amongst themselves, Appa surprised everyone. He said, the land has to be divided into 8 parts. The 3 families get to choose, which portion they want, since they have taken care of the land for so long. The other 5 portions can be sold jointly & money divided among the children. Entertaining no arguments from his sons, Appa was PEREMPTORY, in declaring an equal share of wealth for his daughter & the 3 families who had tilled the land.
I still recollect that last trip. The Trivandrum University came & took charge of the contents in the Library. Each of us was allowed to pick one book to keep & I still have my leather bound Tow Sawyer, autographed by Appa. The household articles were sold & some retained. When the buyers came to take away the cow Lakshmi & her DYNAMIC calf Kamali, Ayya Kutti's wife Paru Kutty started weeping profusely. Appa thought for 2 minutes. Then he apologised to the buyers & asked Paru Kutti to take Lakshmi & Kamali. He didn't bat an eyelid. Such was the respect he commanded from his children, that no one raised a voice.
After the sale, registration & packing was over, Appa came to Delhi to live with my maternal grand father. Apart from his clothes, he got exactly 5 articles from the Palakkadu house. His ebony walking stick with an Ivory knob, his pocket watch, Amma's photo & a copy of Webster's Dictionary & Sundarakandam. Without a backward glance & with no regrets, he left his belongings, his people & his life in Palakkadu to come & live in Delhi.
After 2 happy years there, he passed away peacefully, in his sleep, one night. With time, I have come to realise what a great man he was & how lucky I have been to associate with him & have him as an indelible part of my life.
Nice talepiece. Thanks for building your tale on my words, Gowri.
DeleteNow I know- where the interest for books,poems etc. comes from. Thank you for a glimpse into the past treasures. Contentment and probably sharing too, seems to be things of the past.
DeleteWhat a life?
DeleteVery familiar nostalgia in most of our childhood days of those times. and we shd be thankful to Gowri to reminiscence in such powerful prose!
DeleteBythe bye, what is Saddi Sappadu?
DeleteYou don't know? It is a full 7 course meal served on a plantain leaf (thalai vazhai ilai) complete with apertiff.
DeleteThough familiarly nostalgic your Palkattu Appa is an exemplar combining concepts of egalitarianism of the west with the reunciation of the east. Thank you.
Deletevery nice Tale Gowri. The names are too good. preciely captured Palakkad Iyer's events. N Thala vazi elai is too special for feast.
DeleteNice Gowri - The Talepiece was like having the pal payasam in the Saddhi.
DeleteRelatively easy fare from Hypatia todey. Many good clues. My favourites are 4a and 20d. Could finish all except anno for 5d!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jacob. Glad you enjoyed it.
Delete27a I think we discussed this earlier
ReplyDeleteETC is "and others" and not just "others"
10a imu,
(Edit O (uncle)*)<=
10a suggesting make=edit? The anno by Col looks appropriate.
DeleteNow I see it.
Delete+1 for 27A.
DeleteAgree. I had originally clued it as "and others" but when I edited it, had inadvertently missed that.
Delete9a I sense a death hill somewhere!
ReplyDeleteA doubt about 20D. Plasma is a part of blood and not blood itself. Sometimes it is called blood plasma,since it could be of different types.
ReplyDeleteNobody with the solution and anno for 5D? Shall wait till 12 Noon before throwing it open for all
ReplyDeleteThe crossword tomorrow will be put up at 7AM, like I do on Friday's, as I am heading out early on my road trip, the regulars may please monitor it. The regular updating of the blog which I usual do at 4 PM will be delayed. Tomorrows drive is Bangalore-Srirangam-Tanjore-Kanadukathan(Karaikudi) where I will halt for the night, staying at Chettinadu Mansion. The other days of my trip it will be business as usual as I will be driving out around 9AM only
ReplyDelete
DeleteNoted sir. Have a safe Journey.
Have a safe and enjoyable journey Colonel
Deleteenjoyable clues all round 5D still unsolvable!
ReplyDeleteThank you CDR Gani. Hope your doubts have been cleared now.
Delete5 D
ReplyDeleteSolution : ELEVEN
WOMAN'S EVE
Large woman:Amazon in the light 11a!
DeleteThere is more though.
DeleteUse of light here to refer to 11A was nice.
DeleteThanks Sree Sree. That's it.
DeleteMore? Time to discuss. I got up to this.
ReplyDelete1A, if husband and wife are sharing a tart it means h and w has tart in between right. Why we are keeping h and w in between tart ulta?
ReplyDeleteHW sharing tat> T(HW)ART. Tart as a word and not physical sharing of Tart.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSharing also means splitting or dividing.
DeleteSo H&W split TART
Yes, As explained by Paddy and Ramesh - Sharing is an insertion indicator.
Delete5D is still not very clear
ReplyDeleteLights in Crosswords are Grid entries. So eleven 0r 11 in this crossword is AMAZON and Amazon means
Delete1. A member of a legendary nation of women warriors reputed to have lived in ancient Scythia.
2. often amazon A tall, aggressive, strong-willed woman.
Thanks for the en'light'enment Col.!
DeleteThanks for the clarification Col.
DeleteThank you, Sir! It is clear now.
DeleteOk Soms, you know my fav clue :D
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I had thought of you and AD when I put it in the grid and it was intended as a dedication to you both.
DeleteMany super clues from Hypatia today. Took more time to solve. Enjoyed solving..5d still not clear to me..how does the clue definition refer to 11a..my interpretation was..E(L)(EVE)N..with E,N not accounted for.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Hope 5D is clear now.
DeleteRefer Col.'s comment above.
ReplyDeleteLarge woman is Amazon which is 11A here (light)
CW's are after all Black & White. White squares are blanks(lights are to be filled in)
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteApparently some annotations are written after knowing or guessing the answer.
ReplyDelete27 across(etched): is the apostrophe s in man's ignored? Reason?
ReplyDelete