Tushya of IIT Delhi cracks clues like a pro, wins JNU Open Crossword Contest

Tushya of IIT Delhi on Friday lifted the winner’s trophy of the 2nd JNU Open Crossword Contest. While Isha of JNU was declared the first runner-up, Mihir of JNU clinched the 2nd runner-up spot. All participants received certificates.

The contest was held at the Arts and Aesthetics Auditorium on the university campus. As many as 55 participants, mainly from the host institute and IIT Delhi, threw in their hats to crack the clues, going first through a written preliminary round and then an onstage final of six top contestants.

Before the preliminary, a workshop was conducted by Mr Vinayak Ekbote, vice-president of the Crossword Federation of India, on the intricacies of solving cryptic crosswords. An expert cruciverbalist, Mr Ekbote has mentored school students in the national capital to attain expertise in the mind game.

The event was attended among others, by Andrew Lynn, Shandar Ahmed, Ramesh Agrawal, Himanshu Shekhar,all senior JNU faculty, Pramod Khmar and Pradeep Jha, faculty from DUAmrit Lugun, former Indian Ambassador to Greece, Vivek Kumar Singh, Chairman, RERA Bihar, noted consultants Bipul Kiran and Ajay Kumar.

The contest was one in a series that Extra-C, a civil society initiative into promoting knowledge-based co-curricular activities in India and beyond, has been organising across top educational institutions.

In the past few months, it has organised crossword contests in Miranda House, Ramjas College, Jamia Hamdard , DSE among others. It has under its stable a number of national and international contests both in online and offline formats.