My passions

To be happy in life, you need some activities about which you are passionate. Fortunately I have three (among oothers). Cryptic crosswords, Englishman's gift to humanity, Carnatic music, South India's gift to the world and Computers & Internet, USA's gift to mankind are my three most passionate activities. Of these I like the second (Carnatic music) only as a listener.

In this which is my first blog, let me talk about Cryptic Cosswords. Does the following sentence mean anything to you?.

Second grade record about personal thoughts (4)

OK, it is a crossword clue. All cryptic crossword clues consist of a definition of the answer (usually at the beginning or the end through a key-word) and a separate indication or pointer which provides a set of instructions for constructing the answer. The number of letters in the brackets indicates the number of letters in the solution.

Let's go back to the clue. Definition is 'personal thoughts' and the indication is second grade record and the solution has 4 letters.

Most readers would have solved it by now. For the minority, the solution is BLOG. Pray tell me how. Yes I will. Second grade is B and record is LOG. Just join them and you get BLOG. Simple, isn't it?

I'll continue on this as well as Carnatic music in my next blog.