Crossee — a daily crossword from India's pop culture and history

A 9×9 crossword, using current-use words drawn from the numerous languages of India. Free, no sign up required.

Why this exists

I play the NYT Mini and Midi most mornings. They are good puzzles. But the clues assume an American childhood — a sitcom that ran before I was born, a baseball team, a brand of cereal in an aisle I have never walked down. You cannot solve what you have never heard of, and looking it up is not solving. My partner had the same complaint in the same week, which is usually the sign that a thing is worth building.

So: the same shape of puzzle, built out of India. Dhoni behind the stumps. The jingle you can still sing. The film line everyone quotes. The dish people argue about the correct way to make. Nothing obscure, nothing that needs a search — if you grew up in India, or grew up around it, you already know it.

It is a 9×9. It is meant to be easy. One cup of coffee, start to finish, and then on with your morning.

Across

  1. 1. What birds do with their wings to fly
  2. 5. Don't play the _____ game! (Admonishment to someone not owing up their mistake)
  3. 6. The greatest possible degree of something
  4. 7. The Hindi name for the hard seed of a particular palm tree, usually eaten with the leaf of a vine that shares its name
  5. 8. ____ and you miss it
  6. 10. (Hindi slang) What Indian examinations are believed to encourage in learners as a style of learning
  7. 11. A popular mosquito repellent with a black and yellow logo
  8. 14. A ride-hailing app
  9. 15. A cockroach
  10. 17. A 2019 movie from the YRF Spy universe
  11. 18. Indian basil
  12. 19. Being of the age 13 through 19

Down

  1. 1. Bansals' answer to Bezos
  2. 2. Dalai ___
  3. 3. An independent ruler or chieftain (especially in Africa or Arabia)
  4. 4. (Hindi slang) One lakh
  5. 5. Rolled in leaf instead of paper
  6. 7. Ravi Shankar's strings
  7. 8. The part of the face above the eyes
  8. 9. Someone who doesn't want to hear what you have to say might repeat this word over and over with fingers in their ears
  9. 11. ____-Bopp, a comet that remained visible unaided for a record 569 days in 1997
  10. 12. A private national level board of school education in India (abbreviation)
  11. 13. On ____ ice
  12. 16. What an umpire means when he points atthe sky

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