Bangalorean wins Indian Crossword League - The Hindu

Bangalorean wins Indian Crossword League - The Hindu

Gaurav Gopinath weds Monika Upadhyay on 10 Nov 2013

Few snaps from the wedding of my son Gaurav which was solemnised at Bangalore on 10 Nov 2013. Shall add a few more after the photographer obliges.

At a dinner for family on the previous day ie 09 Nov 13

Tying the thaali (Mangalsutra) with help from the sister-in-law

Smiles all round

After the traditional meal (Sadya) after the wedding

Micro S&B at Hyderabad

Some photographs of the Micro S&B held at Minerva House, Hyderabad on 19 Oct 13

Mukundala Balasubramanyam urf MB

Raghu says, yours truly with Ramesh. The young guy in the blue T is yours truly. Ramesh is the other guy.

The Three Musketeers from Hyderabad (Actually 2 S's and a B)

I wonder why our lady musketeer from the twin cities could not attend.

CV/CG RIshikesh/Gridman/Chaturvasi's 70th B'day bash

It was an eventful day for THC's resident CCE which was capped off with an evening bash at the Platinum Point, Presidency Club, Chennai. The bash had thin attendance and only the following made it to the event Padmanabhan, Bhala, Rengaswamy, Dr Gaytahri Srikanth, VP, Ajeesh and self (as a surprise factor for the B'day boy) with the B'day boy and Mrs Gita Rishikesh. Appended below are some of the photographs.

 Mrs Gita Rishikesh, Dr Gayatri Srikanth and Venkatesh Prabhakar (VP)

 Padmanabhan, Rengaswamy and Bhalachandra Pasupathy (Bhala)

 The B'day cake

 B'day boy and self

 The cake and candles with an extra one for luck

 CV reading out the inscriptions on the cake

 Gayathri, Gita, CV, Bhala, Padmanabhan, Self, VP & Rengaswamy

 A piece to eat at last

A piece for the better half

Padmanabhan reads out the poem composed by Mrs Pavalamani Pragasam (PP)

 ....and presents it to him

 A bouquet for Gita

 CV reading out PP's poem

 A gift for the B'day boy from Kishore, Arden, Shuchi, Bhavan, VP, Sandhya, David John, Suresh, Padmanabhan, Gayathri, Phantom, Ramesh, Dr Srinivasan, Ajeesh, Bhala and Self

 Ajeesh who arrived just as the cake was beng cut with VP and CV

 The gift, a SONY digital photo frame

Self, Padmanbhan, Rengaswamy, VP, Ajeesh, Gayathri, Gita, CV and Bhala at wind up time

Last but not the least a big big thank you to Bhala and Padmanabhan for putting in their time  and effort to organise the evening, great job done by both of them.

PS: I am going to create a database of all the visitors to my blog so that we can have details of everyone in various cities, for use in case of future events at any of the cities. Please forward your Address, Contact nos and e-mail ID's to my e-mail ID. Details will be kept confidential.

My 60th B'day bash

The day began with a treasure hunt set up by my wife to make me hunt for my B'day gifts and in true cruciverbalist fashion the pointers to the locations were in the form of clues which she set up with help from the Chief of the Research &Analysis Wing of THCC namely Kishore

 Pondering over the 'PUZZLE' clue which was

"Surprise, non-plus and befuddle with the broken down crossword to put together? (6)"

The PUZZLE being the Jigsaw CW given to me by Gita Iyer at the first S&B meet. 

 Retrieving one of the gifts from the 'GRINDER' which was clued as 

"Smile, the German machine is in the kitchen (7)"

Another present, a SAMSUNG GALAXY NEXUS phone from my wife that was hidden in the BAR

"Lawyers prevent going to the liquor cabinet (3)"

The final gift a 'SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE' from my Sons and daughter-in-law hidden in my FIAT MILLICENTO

"A thousand one hundred ride on four wheels (10)"

At the location of the surprise B'day bash (Kochhar Institute)

The chief organiser, my wife Gita, welcoming the gathering

With Kishore

 Mrs Devanathan, Shuchi and Devanathan (Arden)

 The two B'day boys, my younger son Gaurav who turned 30 (he surprised all of us including my wife by landing up in the morning) and self

 Some of the guests waiting for the cake to be cut

 The Birthday cake

 That looks too delicious to be cut

 Self explanatory

A hug from my mother, seen in the background are my m-i-l and f-i-l, the three of them are at 87, 86 and 92 respectively

Egged on by the guests the B'day boys downed a bottle of Champagne each

A hug from my better half

And a kiss as well. I must congratulate my wife for all the effort she put in to organise the function especially the effort that she went through to keep it secret from me, in which she succeded

Singing my favourite song 'Surangani'

Watch it 

Tired after all the Vodka, Champagne and opening of the gifts at the end of the day

These were the clues of the treasure hunt in the sequence in which they were set out, I have given the answers first so that they can be appreciated, as some of them relate to items around my house and you'll may not have any idea as to what the item is.

DOG COLLAR - Priestly accessory worn by Cocoa (3,6)
ENCYCLOPAEDIA - Wikipedia's predecessors in black and white usually went before Britannica (13)
EGG-TRAY - Place where chickens' ancestors and descendants reside, a cluth of nothings (3-4)
PAPA'S-PHOTO - Italian pope's picture shows the first Colonel in the family (4'1-5)
AVNI's PHOTO - Grand-daughter countenance that looks back from this drinking utensil (4'1,5)
KINGFISHER BEER - Drink got by Buzzer right after the royal angler leads (10,4)

GRINDER - Smile, the German machine is in the kitchen (7)
ORANGE JUICE - Citrus extract has zero range, but has electricity (6,5)
PUZZLE - Surprise, non-plus and befuddle with the broken down crossword to put together? (6)
INVERTOR - Electrical gadget that puts things right or upside down? (8)
NUTS - Contents of Pandora's box are not balanced kept in the fridge (4)
ANDAMAN CHAIR - Island seat found when a guy was covered with a squashed arachnid (7,5)
TOOL BOX - Where you may find a Gimlet, a screwdriver and, maybe, even a Rusty Nail without having to make them (4,3)
HELMET - Protection for the chief: wear it or face a fine (6)
 and finally 'BAR' and 'MILLICENTO' clues for which are already shown above.

Thanks to Kishore for helping my wife to set that up.

And last but not the least a big big thanks to my wife for the treasure hunt and the surprise party that followed.

And above all she set up a online site to allow all my friends and relatives to wish me online at WEEBLY. I would like to thank all those who wished me there.

The millionth pageview of THCC

The moment before the millionth view

and the next page at the millionth view

CV meets Raju at Coimbatore

Rishikesh aka Gridman and Raju had a one on one at Coimbatore on the 21st of Sep. Here are the snaps.

An engrossed setter browsing the collectors collection.

The setter with a collector.