lalita larking

An obsession with cryptic crosswords. Everything else falls in place.

Name:
Location: Kolkata, India

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Evolution of an obsession

Beefy type I'd seen by the beach kept in mind, but no source of inspiration (6,7)*

I remember the first ever English dictation I took in school. I got four out of five, and was bitter about it. I'd spelt bananas and monkey correctly. What I got wrong was floor. In my textbook, with the fonts, it looked like it was spelt Aoor; things were weird in English anyway, so that was how I spelt it.

I suspect my fascination with words began then. It was certainly helped along by Saradamba teacher. She taught Telugu, but used to supervise us when we wrote our end of term exams. She had an interesting way of keeping early finishers occupied and amused. She'd ask us to make lists of words ending with 'ight' or find as many words as we could from the word 'embarrassment'. I remember I'd found some eighty before the bell rang.

At home we'd play Lexicon, and that was great fun. I first played Scrabble in a hostel room in NIMHANS, and thought it a wonderful game. But crosswords hadn't appeared on my horizon yet. My father solved the Hindu crossword daily, but the one time I looked at the clues they read like so much nonsense that I shrugged and dropped it.

It was in Delhi that my interest in crosswords began. My husband never fails to remind me that when I saw him trying to solve the Times puzzle in The Statesman, I'd sneered and said, yeah, Daddy does them, too.

But this was before we were married, and when it is the love of your life that is doing it, you take an interest. From suggesting synonyms for words to taking a look at the clues was a small step. The first answer we arrived at was 'carnation'. I remember the definition was pink, and motors and races were involved. As I went to check synonyms in the Webster, I remember thinking this was fun.

As my first Delhi winter almost drove me back to Madras, what kept me going in the freezing evenings was the Times crossword. Those were days before home computers and the Internet, or conveniences like a desktop dictionary or Google. The Webster and the Encyclopaedia Britannica got a regular workout in the early days of my solving career.

Looking up words, checking synonyms, trying anagrams…it seems funny in retrospect, but I had no clue about solving crosswords. The hidden words, the anagram indicators, double definitions, written backward solutions, all were discovered slowly, and painstakingly. There was one memorable conversation one night:

"Come to bed, Lali. It is past midnight." "Yeah, just two clues left, honey." "You can check the solution tomorrow." "That's what I don't want to do." "You realise you are getting obsessed, don't you?" " Yeah, I know."

From celebrating five clues solved to fretting about five left unsolved before the next edition of the paper arrives was a journey. From completing the puzzle at all to completing it in half an hour took longer.

I took to the Internet solely to solve the Guardian puzzles online. When they became a subscription service, I used my credit card for the first time and online at that, to make the payment. When The Statesman stopped carrying the Times puzzle I stopped taking the paper and subscribed online.

Nowadays I do Daily Telegraph crosswords that The Telegraph carries, both the easy version and the cryptic puzzle, in the mornings. It never takes more than eight or ten minutes. When I go online, the first thing I do is to sign in at The Times Crossword Club. Concise and cryptic, the crosswords take me twenty minutes at the most. The Guardian puzzles come next. The weekly prize puzzles, Club Monthly and Genius puzzles might take longer, but these days I never have to spend longer than an hour on a puzzle.

Today, The Times site is undergoing maintenance. They hope to be back online by 12:00 PM GMT. I sighed and went on to the Guardian puzzles, and there was that gem by Paul. As I solved it, it occurred to me that I've come a long way indeed. Now to wait until the Times is back online… sigh.

Cheers!
* Carbon dioxide

12 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a filler post, of course. But carbon dioxide? Explain, Lali. Don't just give the solution.

7:41 pm  
Blogger Lalita said...

Ash- I take umbrage. This is not a filler post, it is as much I can manage in my current RA status.

As for the explanation, it is simplicity itself: beach= Bondi, Beefy type= ox,+ I'd, all in between care= mind.

The thing to do with crossword clues is to ignore how they read and treat each word as an instruction. That is all.

10:49 pm  
Blogger netizen నెటిజన్ said...

Is that lady still around?

7:33 pm  
Blogger Lalita said...

netizen- You mean Saradamba teacher? I suppose, her sister is going strong, after all. But if not, maysherestinpeace, as Terry Pratchett's witches say. Interesting lady, to say the least.

9:43 pm  
Blogger † Herzleid † said...

I find it so rude that this "ash"-person keeps goading you with the complaint "this is a filler post". Does it not bother you that your blogging is put under other people's demands like that? It is a personal blog after all, (is it not?) who are we to demand anything of you?

3:54 pm  
Blogger Lalita said...

Herzleid- Long time readers tend to grumble if the kind of posts they like don't come up frequently. It is okay, I don't mind, as they do take the time to comment, after all.

4:11 pm  
Blogger Jam said...

Hey there Lali,

This is a brilliant post and guess what, you've probably inspired me to write a post about one of my all time favorite obsessions, quizzing.

Cheers......Jam

PS: Could never get enough time or inclination or the right teacher to teach me to crack cryptic crosswords. Am not too bad with the Quick ones though ;-)

10:02 am  
Blogger Lalita said...

Jam- Thank you, and visit again. Solving cryptic crosswords can't be taught, really. You can read books about it, certainly, but you need practice and perseverance to get proficient.

9:29 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Waow Laitha! u r too good! I wish I could at least do one ;)!
seriously you caught me right when yu said - "but the one time I looked at the clues they read like so much nonsense that I shrugged and dropped it"
thats so truely me!!

but I think after reading your post , I am motivated to put my head in there!!

yu know yu r awesome :D

11:04 am  
Blogger Lalita said...

VeeenS- Thank you. Do give crosswords a go. If you at all like words and word games, you will get fascinated by crosswords, like I did.

1:43 pm  
Blogger rajk said...

Hi, I've been solving cryptic crosswords (Times of India, Sundays!) for some time now and have been looking for like-minded souls. Can you suggest some websites that carry cryptic cw for free?

9:29 pm  
Blogger Lalita said...

Rajk- You could try crossword central, they have a huge list of online sites. Most are free but the quality is patchy.

8:45 am  

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