Perhaps this piece could be the most insignificant of all my ravings herein. But some happenings in life are so pleasing that it is imperative that we preserve and cherish their memories. This is one such rare event.
Sat, Nov 8th 2008, 10 PM: I was preparing for a forthcoming assessment in my hostel room at IISc. When were the assessments not forthcoming at IISc, by the way? So this was a usual dreary night at the institute for me. Unexpectedly I heard someone knocking at my door. It was my IISc-Telecomm coterie visiting my room after their dinner. It seemed they had almost nothing to do that night and had come to my room to chit-chat and pass time.
I actually did not mind, partly because I was not lagging behind in my preps and also I was already mentally drained out by then. One of my friends started trying to enter into my lappy account. The password screen flashed bright in front of him, along with the customary clue.
"Cold Fox" read the clue. I had no prior exposure to cryptic crosswords, so this clue was as anonymous to the cruciverbalist as to the common man. Yet sportively I acceded to their demand of providing better clues.
It was a 5-letter word; A commercial product; Cold did not refer to the temperature-based aspect.
They arrived instantaneously upon "Vicks" - I had included "fox" to remind me of 'vixen'. I would like to move the scene to what transpired some ten minutes later. Rocket science is not necessary to guess the rest.
I was pleading with them to reveal the password! And out came a clue:
A new type of waste cloth, we hear...(6)
I had absolutely no idea of what "we hear" meant. All I could mutter was waste cloth could be supplanted by rag. Yet each of them never really allowed me to proceed in this direction. I was deliberately misled by a countless number of futile clues. Some of them threw out an inkling; others were totally dumb.
Finally after minutes of desperation, I tumbled upon the hard reality that rag ought to be pronounced differently to arrive at the answer. It was Anurag, my guide for Post-graduation studies.
It was an incredible feeling once I arrived at the answer. The link present in each of those inklings revealed themselves to me. It was as if you had watched a intriguing murder plot unwind itself at the final minute.
Everyday in the ensuing semester holidays, my first task in the morning was to go about solving The Hindu Crossword. Who wanted difficult sudokus everyday anymore? :)
1 comment:
What a liar... You did not get Anurag at all... Why make a preposterous story that glorifies your crossword solving ability?
"The ten minutes that transpired" went as follows: The author was clobbered by the commenting team. His desperate struggle to free himself was pitied by the commenting team and the rest followed....
Finally the "incredible feeling once I arrived at the answer" is certainly something that never happened. The commenting team threw a sitter at the vain pompous author when he was crying in disbelief of his incompetency!
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