100 CROSSWORD – Business, Finance & Management
by B.B. Huria
Reviewed by
Surrinder Kumar Sood
Mr. Huria's book titled “100 Crosswords – Business, Finance & Management”
brings forth expression of thoughts and ideas emanating from the spheres of
business, finance and management tinged with a dash of technology providing an
open platform for testing knowledge and comprehension of the readers. The
brainy series combine techno-economic and mathematical precision of the left
hemisphere with impulse stimulus and passion of the right hemisphere towards
making it a rejuvenating exercise.
As the author has pointed out, each of us, irrespective of profession or work
operations, is engaged in managing finances and day-to-day affairs in all walks
of life. A systematic and persistent study of a subject involves lot of
intensive perorations but crossword quizzes act like coffee breaks of
interactions with a variety of ideas thrown in to provide a solution. A fine
aspect of it all is that one is not bound by a time constraint. Crossword series
are ever a sound testing board when simple at times turns out to be complex and
the intricate, facile. No wonder, crosswords at one level are akin to
crossing swords with the author of the puzzles.
Being not much of a systematic person, I opened at random page 9 and
viewed the longest quiz text at 9 Down of crossword #009:
"October 27, 1986 witnessed deregulation for the securities market in London, in
which the London Stock Exchange (LSE) became a private limited company.
The event was given the name ________. (3, 4)"
The solution is "Big Bang" which is reminiscent of cosmological cataclysmic
event of first few moments of creation of the universe. Obviously, the media
person who seemed to know nothing of cosmology found a mere privatization issue
a landmark event of gigantic proportions. Curiously, LSE most often
reminds of London School of Economics, a more apt Big Bang institution.
This also shows that information culled from one source leads to prompting of
others, even if unrelated, but equally important issues as a spinoff.
097 2D: Maslow's Hierarchy and the Theory of Human Motivation deal with
the aspect of human ______ (4). Hey, it is our simple "need". It is Maslow
again who says that (062 2D) once a need is satisfied, it stops being a
motivator and help crop up to other needs. His vision of comprehensive
psychology is path breaking in organization and management leadership. He
has very decently postulated that people often possess motivational
systems unrelated to rewards with needs leading to self-actualization. In
fact, this acted like a refinement of traditional psychology.
032 11D: Involving financial matters: derived from a Latin word meaning
“moneybag". (6). Moneybag is truly a tempting offer but the
solution is a dull "fiscal". Ironically, moneybag has acquired pejorative
meaning while fiscal has attained a modicum of essential respectability.
A very simple quiz which could but not of necessarily crucial concern with
finance
or management is 18 Across in 064, reads: "Extra, but unnecessary" (11).
I had a superfast "redundant" response but unfortunately short on characters and
the correct solution has to be full-blooded "superfluous". Even if wrong, I am
happy with "redundant". Of course, the only alternative is to amend the
solution but one can't impinge on the author's preference as also fact that in
crosswords, your choice for the solution from more than one probable gets
restricted by the interlinking characters that can fit in the whole matrix.
Funnily, brain can act supersonic or dead slow for no reason and its teaser
processes whimsically prod, suppress or sharpen the responses which surprize
each one of us. Don't we all at times mutter: Oh, what a fool I have been? I
knew the answer but still didn't turn it over the right way.
As a game, crossword comes close to playing a chess match with the difference
that all chess moves are integrated and inter-related with multiple layers, but
level of stimulation is strong in both cases.
A series of 100 crosswords with 20 quizzes within each crossword makes for 2000
independent puzzles waiting for readers' response with solutions given in the
last pages for crosscheck. This book makes for a fine compendium of information
and provide games of patience to be played and cherished.