Of puzzles, passions and politics

Of puzzles, passions and politics

By Pavan Kapoor

JAKARTA (JP): Every day, millions of people all over the world
escape into the black and white checkered square called a
crossword puzzle, where idyllically every problem has an
interlocking solution. "Crosswording" has reached such epidemic
proportions in the last part of the millennium that the Oxford
Guide to Word Games declared the crossword as the "most
widespread and popular game" in the puzzles arena.

There are crossword puzzles in every language of the world and
it is only fitting to give the history of this king of games
some due respect. At Christmas, 1913, the New York World
published the first crossword by Arthur Wayne, which unlike
today's square or rectangular grid was diamond shaped. It had 32
interlocking words and Arthur had named it "word cross" and it
was for the specific purpose of boosting the readership of the
daily.

Here was a game that was to challenge the mind while one sat
in solitude and peace. It was just a matter of time before books
on the all-engrossing game began to be published and sold like
secondhand branded goods in a flea market. Today when I walk out
of a building to my car, it is not surprising to see a group of
drivers deeply engrossed in the daily crossword with a leaky pen.

Crossword became a buzzword and crossword mania spread to the
fashion world, with women sporting black-and-white dresses with
crossword motifs.

People seem to like the idea of forgetting big problems by
solving small ones. So much so that today, there is a word for
someone who knows the art of solving a crossword and is familiar
with many of the standard terms used to fill up small squares so
that the words will eventually interlock. This evolved art is
called Crosswordese.

Every crossword addict knows that a two-letter word for the
Sun God is Ra. It is used frequently to fill up small spaces.
Then there is a five-letter word for a "native of Muscat", which
is Omani.

A four-letter word for a "Greek Porch" is a "Stoa"; a four-
letter word for "Scottish hillside" is "brai". But for one
unaccustomed to Crosswordese these are unfamiliar facts.

This is a whole world of Crosswordese, where people wear
Japanese sashes called "obis", Feudal slaves called "esnes"
abound and where there are always gods and goddesses to fall back
upon -- Hera, Odin and Thor.

Even The Jakarta Post has a little treat for crossword maniacs
and keeps them in suspense until the next day, when the answers
are revealed -- by when people have either: torn their hair out
over an unsolved clue; called the newspaper editorial office and
asked the Satpam (security guard) to hand over the first copy of
the next day's Post; bugged friends, relatives and enemies if
they knew a three-letter word for a Chinese pagoda.

However, there is one type of Crosswordese that is played in
real life that fails to entertain and arouse people to put on
their thinking caps. Politics is so similar to Crosswordese, in
which the people in charge seem to be flailing at the next step
while wondering if their last one "across" will connect with the
words that go branching "down".

Just as a crossword puzzle would perplex the solver and nudge
him to start from the bottom so that both ends meet in the
middle, sadly politics is very much the same -- only that very
often nothing meets in the middle and there is no connection,
leaving the lives of millions hanging in midair.

Just as in a crossword a seven-letter word will not do where a
six-letter word is required, in the same way politicians cannot
use strategy A where strategy B is required.

Men in power show an obsessive quality to achieve a means to
their end. The same thread of obsessive desire to find the
solution to a clue has people scouring books and frantically
calling newspapers to find the three-letter word for a flightless
bird, a large antelope or any other animal. Or perhaps it is a
perfect reason why in the contemporary lexicological lifestyle of
people, two total strangers desperate for an answer can put their
heads together on a train or bus and ponder over a three-letter
word for "the Old West".

A friend stated it would be a good idea if the Constitution
were amended to make it compulsorily for all ministers and
members of the Legislature to solve one crossword every day.

By the way, would you know an eight-letter word for "a cop's
command"? The only one coming to my mind are two five-letter
ones: uang rokok (cigarette money).