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The art of decoding
Now let us see the actual roles that codes and abbreviation perform in the crossword.
Take the clue `Thick rich soup is mine, holy man right one (10)'. You might recall that in the list of codes we saw last week, the words `Right' represents `R'. `Holy man' is saint, which, when abbreviated, gives `St'. So we have Minestrone, a soup. The answer to the clue `Fragrant water in French from German town (3,2,7)' `Eau de Cologne' prompts itself.
Across
1. With love, a little sister finds refuge (5)
4. Covering for hand with good attachment (5)
6. Microphones made by million little Eisenhowers (5)
DOWN
2. Money? Copy? A quiet point (3)
3. Instigate an agitation by north India state (4,2)
5. Apprentice Tibetan priest gives wool (5)
The answers `Oasis', `Glove', `Mikes', `Stir up', `Ape `and `Llama' would bear some explanation.
Take `Oasis'. It is refuge. Love is O (Remember, in tennis, `Love all' means none has scored yet, that is, zero or O), the word `little' indicates that it is an abbreviation. `Sis' therefore is `little sister'.
`Glove', it is easy to see, is the covering for the hand. `Good' and `Attachment' stand for `G' and `Love' respectively.
A U.S. President was affectionately called `Ike'. Therefore Mission (M) Eisenhowers (Ikes) would yield `Mikes', microphones.
To agitate is to `Stir', UP' is a north Indian State and the phrase `Stir Up' means `to instigate'.
`Ape' is simple enough, replete as it is with hints. `Monday' is ape, `to ape' is `to copy', (as in aping the West). We had seen last week that `Quiet' means `P' and `point' means `E' (The origin, it is said, is the Morse code, where a dot stood for `e').
An apprentice is a learner, `L' (Seen those cars spluttering and moving tentatively on the roads with this sign?) and `Lama' as in `Dalai Lama' is a Tibetan priest. And `Llama', an animal belonging to camel family found in South America, gives us wool.
K. T. RAJAGOPALAN
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