Stats: The puzzle page was loaded 554 times. 58 visitors had a go at it. 43 solvers completed both the puzzle and bonus forms. The remaining 15 solved it partly or fully but did not submit. 26 solvers got the full score.
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Here is the solution grid:
BONUS QUESTIONS:
Q.This safe has a secret code 16347 96 3926429 734264527622 2042 118132520 (4,2,4,8,2,5) Using the numbers in the lights as your guide, solve the code and crack the message that “opens” this safe. ANS:LEAD ME FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
Annotations
| Ref | Clue | Answer | Annotation |
| 1A | Least likely to survive (4) | last | DD |
| 6A | Close to nature study in garden (4) | Eden | E DEN |
| 9A | Spy follows Bond’s boss with American in shade (7) | magenta | M AGENT A |
| 10A | Friend had married first (4) | mate | M ATE |
| 11A | Starts to sell while anticipating profit in exchange (4) | swap | Acrostic |
| 12A | Stray animal taking time’s dead (7) | digress | (-t+D) IGRESS |
| 16A | Look over payment nearly collected (6) | serene | SE(REN(-t)E, |
| 17A | Savoury snack of kale oddly dipped in tea (6) | chakli | THEME – CHA(K L)I |
| 19A | Fresh revolution in conflict (3) | war | WAR<< |
| 20A | Right approach for Chinese frequently chosen at Yahoo (3) | Tao | aTyAhOo |
| 22A | Finally stuck behind hot black liquid (3) | ink | IN K |
| 23A | Surprise gift after guy returns article (5) | manna | M ANNA |
| 25A | Most dislike Panama, say (3) | hat | HAT(-e) |
| 26A | Colourful design by girl on a ground (7) | rangoli | THEME – GIRLONA* |
| 27/4D | Were any crackers in this celebration? (3,4) | New Year | THEME – WERE ANY* |
| 28A | Say Rudolph with mother around one lake (5) | Wilma | W I(L)MA |
| 29A | The old school’s affirmation (3) | yes | YE S |
| 34A | Source of cash that’s basically available to merchants (1.1.1) | a.t.m | Acrostic |
| 35A | Charge to break (6) | damage | DD |
| 37A | Desserts in places covered while on vacation (6) | sweets | THEME – S(WE)ETS |
| 40A | Cross female player showing special talent (1,6) | x factor | X F ACTOR |
| 43A | State of retired woman in Delhi (4) | Iran | IRAN<< |
| 44A | Pen from ration shop (4) | coop | DD Coop / Co-op |
| 45A | Form of entertainment basically kept alive by artist’s fine energy (7) | karaoke | KA RA OK E |
| 46A | Not good to be around (4) | evil | THEME – Rev LIVE |
| 47A | Doctors ordering CAT scans? (4) | vets | CD |
| 1D | On the other hand rise becoming light (4) | lamp | THEME – (-r+L)AMP |
| 2D | Perhaps I test bombs with hesitation (6) | setter | TEST* ER |
| 3D | Graduate’s popular dish (5) | basin | BAS IN |
| 5D | Some suggest a shopping store (5) | stash | HIPS |
| 7D | India’s extremely wild dancing festival (6) | Diwali | THEME – I A WILD* |
| 8D | Sleeps in bridge, after rolling over (4) | naps | SPAN<< |
| 12D | Freshness anticipated in the air (3) | dew | HP DUE |
| 13D | Forget an ideally concealed suspect (3,2,4) | get an idea | HIPS |
| 14D | Financial professional comes in to work (9) | Economist | COMES IN TO* |
| 15D | Voice influence (3) | say | DD |
| 16D | Viciously attacked a girl kept protected (7) | savaged | SAV(A G)ED |
| 18D | Doctors ignoring Corona in conversations about grants (7) | invests | CONVERSATIONS*-CORONA* |
| 21D | View hidden by gang leader (5) | angle | HIPS |
| 23D | Many able women leaders in Gulf (3) | maw | Acrostic |
| 24D | Like festival but not grand (1,2) | a la | THEME – (-g)A LA |
| 30D | Airfares drop again while flying in game tour (6) | safari | AIRFARES*-RE |
| 31D | Loud raps that become bigger (3) | wax | HP WHACKS |
| 33D | A parent leaves 50% for that girl (3) | her | (-MOT)HER |
| 34D | In a short time, turned in article (2,4) | at home | A TH(OM<<)E |
| 36D | Scale of German’s apartment (1-4) | g-flat | G+FLAT |
| 39/38D | Mould in sacks for explosives (9) | fireworks | THEME – FIRE(WORK)S |
| 41D | Clubs get amateur boxer (4) | clay | THEME – C LAY |
| 42/32D | The German engaged in unusually pious religious cult (4,3) | opus dei. | PIOUS*<<DE. |
Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
Each of the following scored 167 points (Grid Score = 161 and Bonus points = 7)
Anantakrishnan N.
Anirudh Sahni
Ashit Hegde
Bhalchandra Pasupathy
Deepak Gopinath (Col.)
Harish T.K.
Himanshu Rajurkar
Lakshmi Prakash
Madhup Tewari
Madhusudan H
Melissa McSeismal
Mona Sogal
Nagendra Prasad R.
Narayana Swamy D
Narayanan Rangamani
Prakash Arumugam
Ramesh Swaminathan
Ramki Krishnan
Samit Kallianpur
Sandhya Paruchuri
Satyen Nabar
Sohil Bhagat
Srinivas Venkatesh
Supriya Mithal
Veena Venkataraman and
Venkatraghavan S.
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a score of 9.16. It got 17 perfect 10s (40% of those who rated). The lowest score was 6.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
- In a short time, turned in article (2,4) – 14 votes
- Form of entertainment basically kept alive by artist’s fine energy (7) – 11 votes
- Colourful design by girl on a ground (7) – 9 votes
Thanks to all of you for the terrific response. Glad you enjoyed the Diwali special and hope you all had a wonderful Diwali celebration.
Here’s what our solvers said..
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| Arvind Kannabiran | most entertaining as always. hope you had a great festival season. |
| Debasmita Basu | Fun grid. |
| Harish T.K. | LOvely clues. Doubtful about one of the answers.Colour coded grid was confusing at first. |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | Perfect burst of colours for the festival with an inspirational quote. |
| Lakshmi Prakash | Wonderful grid with extremely smooth surfaces.Had great fun cracking the bonus question . |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Lovely grid . |
| Mona Sogal | loved the Rangoli grid pattern 🙂 enjoyed myself thoroughly…the desi references and all…. |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | Sparkling Diwali entertainer! |
| Rathnakumar V | Outstanding grid . |
| sandhya paruchuri | Colourful cracker! |
| Srinivas Venkatesh | Really challenging and enjoyable |
| Suresh Dorbala | Happy Diwali |
| Tejas Siddharth | Very cool puzzle. Nice idea for the code. |
| Venkatesan P. | Enjoyed this Diwali treat. Loved the secret code idea. |
| Venkatraghavan S. | Super grid. Loved it |
| Anantakrishnan N. | Very nice |
| Anirudh Sahni | This started off looking like it would be an easy puzzle, but several clues turned out quite hard to be sure of, because of the short answers and multiple ways to interpret the wordplay. Enjoyed the thematic allusions and semi-&lits sprinkled throughout (including the grid design).18d “Doctors ignoring Corona…” a nice find, had me misled for a long time.I think 42d has a mistake: The German is not de. In 16d is the indicator the wrong way around? |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | Fun, even if all the colours in the grid made my head swim! Diwali and New Year rolled into one |
| Ian VanderSchee | Happy Diwali!! |
| Madhup Tewari | Very enjoyable puzzle. Beautiful clues, as always from Hypatia. |
| Madhusudan H | Very enjoyable, apt theme – just what the doctor ordered for the Deepavali weekend. Happy Deepavali ! |
| Nagendra Prasad R. | ENJOYABLE AND FUN PUZZLE |
| Prakash Arumugam | Clues with a lovely surface and it was a delightful solve. Thank you very much for this cracker of a puzzle and a happy Diwali |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | Nice one “the Rangoli” with a great message in the bonus. Very enjoyable smooth, colorful layout. Diwali went well. |
| Ramki Krishnan | Simple but enjoyable grid, appropriate for a Diwali afternoon! Many nice clues. |
| Sparsh Sinha | Nice. A lot of brain teasers there |
| Supriya Mithal | I enjoyed this puzzle , nice variety of clues ,a topical theme and lovely layout |
| Veena Venkataraman | Interesting ‘Rangoli’ grid |
| Veera Raghavan | Very nice puzzle. Found south east corner tough |
| Ashit Hegde | A fun puzzle but wish it had been a bit more challenging (both grid and bonus puzzle) |
| Narayana Swamy D | Good clues |
| Narayanan Rangamani | Super |
| Samit Kallianpur | Enjoyed solving it! Nice surfaces and theme…Good bonus too! |
| Koteswar Rao | GOOD WAY TO EXPRESS GREEN DIWALI. |