Orkut community "The Hindu Crossword Solutions": A community of 1000+ members from the world over, with the excellent Chaturvasi and Ganesh as moderators, this forum solves the crossword everyday with members contributing a max. of 4 answers per person. There are special runs sometimes, such as "US solvers only" or "one man's blog". The solving is interspersed with learned insights from experienced solvers, occasional clue-writing threads and general crossword-related chitchat. For beginners and veterans alike, a great place to participate, contribute, question, learn.
Col. Gopinath's Blog: An active member of the above community, Col. Gopinath also writes his own blog about the Hindu Crossword. He publishes the solutions around 8.30am everyday. A specialty of his blog is the links he provides for word meanings. Very helpful if you're building on your GK/vocabulary.
Anokha's Blog: The first place to publish the THC solutions each day. Anokha lives in the US time zone and has the crossword wrapped up before those of us in India have even seen the grid. He (she? I don't yet know, Anokha!) writes in a direct, no-nonsense style, no mincing words here - good clues get lavish praise, bad ones get sharp reprimands.
The Hub: A group solving space on which "hubbers" together work on the puzzle. The more you participate, the higher you move up the "hubber" chain (junior to regular to devoted to veteran). Mrs. PP, the owner, posts clapping smileys when the day's crossword gets completed.
Related Posts:
The Hindu Crossword Solutions/Evaluation
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8 comments
Hi Shuchi,
Just to add on to what you have mentioned about my blog, I schedule my posts for 8:30 AM so that others get time to do the crossword on their own rather than trying to look for solutions as soon as they get stuck.
I too have been intrigued by the sex (or is it gender?) of Anokha.
Kept guessing until now when I looked up Maneka's Book of Hindu Names (a much-loaned book in my library with every relative woman asking me for it to name their baby in the making).
It records Anokhi, F, meaning "unique, unparalleled".
Now with that 'a' termination, yes, you guessed it, Shuchi!
Thanks a ton, Shuchi - for mentioning my blog along with a nice review! I myself wouldn't have done that good a job ...........
Now to "The Curious Case of Anokha's Gender" ..............
With all due respect Vasi sir - "Chaturvasi" terminates in an 'i' but ..................
Hold on, I am not "outing" myself just yet! I am just pointing out that there could be (and always are) exceptions to the rule.
Following is the opening paragraph from the book "The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb -
"Before the discovery of Australia, people in the Old World were convinced that all swans were white, an unassailable belief as it seemed completely confirmed by empirical evidence. The sighting of the first black swan might have been an interesting surprise for a few ornithologists (and others extremely concerned with the coloring of birds), but that is not where the significance of the story lies. It illustrates a severe limitation to our learning from observations or experience and the fragility of our knowledge. One single observation can invalidate a general statement derived from millennia of confirmatory sightings of millions of white swans. All you need is one single (and, I am told, quite ugly) black bird."
Vasi sir - being a book lover, you will like reading this book, if you haven't already. He has another one called "Fooled by Randomness" which I am currently reading.
Wow, that was heavy so here is some light stuff...........
"Sex" or "Gender" - That is the question? Rather, that was the question put forth by the professor in a marketing research class that I was taking (hated it!) during my first year of PhD program in the business school.
The professor was trying to explain two things -
1) Whether to use the word 'sex' or 'gender' in the survey questionnaire?
2) Whether this question should be 'open-ended' or 'closed-ended'?
He proceeded to show by example - in one questionnaire this question was asked open-ended as follows:
Sex: ________________
When all the surveys came back, one respondent had answered:
Sex: Four times a week
The answer to us was clear - use 'Gender' and make it 'close-ended' as follows:
Gender: ___ M ___ F
In closing, I would just like to say that I am not being pompous or anything by not disclosing more of me. I am just of the opinion that I should think of a better way of disclosing it given that it has aroused some curiosity.
So, till I figure out how - let this remain "The Curious Case of Anokha's Gender."
Thanks for that intriguing comment Anokha!
Since we're on the topic...a few years ago I used to participate in technical forums under my real name. I had this niggling feeling then that the advice/solutions I suggested were not taken seriously until confirmed by someone else. On a hunch I registered with a fictitious man's name, and found so much more weight given to what I said! I am a senior member now at those same forums. The people there will be very surprised to know that I'm female.
"The Black Swan" - I'll put that on my to-read list too. Isn't it remarkable how the best thinkers from unrelated domains say the same things? Tom Kyte, an authority on databases, says often "It takes only one counter case to disprove a theory". That is almost a paraphrase of the opening lines of "The Black Swan".
That's a crying shame, Shuchi! Can't believe people still have that mentality in this day & age. You should let them know - will set them right!
Hi
I just came across this blog from The Hindu. Very Very interesting to read, the comments of Chaturvasi and the brilliant reply of Anokha are very nice to read. I'm just starting to do Crossword, though I was doing it continuously some 10 years back and left it due to pressure of work. I've a lot to catch up, and with such blogs I think I'll catch up soon.
Great work people.
Sridharan
Hi Sridharan
Welcome here and thank you for your kind words. Do get back to solving and keep visiting us.
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