Monday, September 15, 2014

The High of Hidden Words | OPEN Magazine

The High of Hidden Words | OPEN Magazine

Inaugral function IXL-2014 - 14 Sep 2014




I had the honour of being invited to attend the Inaugural/Launch event of IXL-2014 at the Emperor Hall of the National Sports club of India at Worli, Mumbai. 



 The dais before it was populated

Chief guest at the event was Mr UK Sinha, Chairman, SEBI. The function started with a mini 7 x 7 crossword for the invitees to the event and it was heartening to see the participation and response from them, even though some of them had a field day making guesses for a couple of the two-letter lights.
 The trophy awaiting the IXL-2014 champion


Shachii Manik one of the top ten at last years IXL (due to family commitments she could not participate in the final) was also present.

At the end of the event the special guests and those who correctly solved the 7 x 7 were presented with IXL T-shirts. 

I was surprised when a lady walked up to me immediately after the launch and asked me if I recognised her, when I gave her a blank look, she introduced herself as Nitaa Jaggi!!  Obviously the photo of hers which is there on the interview at Shuchi's site must have been taken much earlier as I could not put two and two together. 

Nita Jaggi's husband, Nitaa Jaggi, Self, Shachii Manik

Another surprise meeting was with Mangesh Sakharam Ghogre my acquaintance from the blog on the LA Times Crossword Corner blog, the blog which inspired me to set up THCC and this blog. He sets crosswords occasionally for the LA Times. Unfortunately I could not take a photograph with him.

Shall add the link to the IXL site after they add more photographs there.

On the whole had a hectic and enjoyable one day outing to Mumbai, kind courtesy Mr Vivek Singh, IXL and Extra-C 

News articles about the launch available at the undermentioned links

Friday, September 12, 2014

When Raju met CV on 06 Sep

Guess who came calling in today? CV !! We had a two-man blog get-together for about two and a half hours about????? crosswords , crosswords and crosswords !! We didn't even know how the time flew !! He is travelling to Madurai tomorrow setting off at 530am !! I admire his intrepid spirit to travel with his frail frame ! Here's A pic of us both.

A S and a B meet!