The telephone rang. But the subeditor was busy. He was in a rush to pass the pages, as the deadline was close by.
But he had to answer the phone too.
“Hello, is that ....”
The voice asked the name of the subeditor.
“Yes it is.”
“I need to talk to you about 'Mind Benders'.”
“I am sorry, right now I am busy with the pages. Can we talk in one hour’s time?”
“This is more important.”
Nothing is important more than passing the pages. So that can wait. But the subeditor did not voice his opinion.
“But right now I am busy. You can call me in one hour’s time.”
“But then you won’t answer me.”
This was getting too far, the sub thought. He had hardly any time to argue with the gentleman on the other side.
“I am sorry, but right now I am busy.”
He slammed the phone down and got back into work at the hand. As thirty minutes passed by, the subeditor finished his pages.
In another thirty minutes, the phone rang once again.
It was that gentleman once again. They spoke as if nothing happened earlier. He wanted the subeditor to refer to Mind Benders page of October 1 and 8.
“Will you take both pages?”
“Hang on…”
The subeditor took time to find both pages. And the conversation resumed. On his instructions, the subeditor looked at the clues on October 1. The clue was ‘Capital of Bangladesh’ - 31 across. And then he looked at the answer on the October 8 solution. The city’s name was spelled as Dacca.
“Is that how you spell it?”
The subeditor could not recall how the name is spelled at once. All he remembered was that aitch (H) and kay (K) had to be somewhere in the word. Quite unsure, he was stammering the spellings. The gentleman righted the spellings.
“Its D H A K A. The spellings given in the solution are wrong. See, when I contacted you earlier, you said you were going through pages. So there must be an editor to look into this. You belong to a reputed newspaper, and this is how you tarnish its image. Now don’t try to put blame on anyone.”
He went on and on. The subeditor could not think of anything to come up with. Apology? But that would only aggravate things. The gentleman on the other side sounded sarcastic at times. You guys know next to nothing, seemed to be his thoughts.
While the gentleman was at it, the subeditor took one step: he went to Internet. And he googled ‘Dacca’ with a faint hope of something positive. Bingo! Here it is right in front of your eyes.
The first link was redirected to Wikipedia. It was followed by many other links. All these links meant to say Dacca is the name of the Bangladesh’s capital. It is now respelled as ‘Dhaka’. So Dacca is the former name given to the city until it was changed in ....
The sub was getting it. It’s a city name, so cannot have one gospel spellings. City names change over time. A crossword is meant to hone up your knowledge of such names in the past as well as present. Dacca is the archaic spellings of Dhaka - which means both are correct.
If Mecca is also transliterated as Makkah, why can’t Dhaka be Dacca? Quran is also spelled as Koran. So what is this big deal about Dacca?
“No, I don’t see it.”
“It’s there, sir. When you google the word the links come.”
“But it’s wrong spellings.”
The subeditor felt all his patience crumbling down. This gentleman cannot be a gentleman. He is nothing but a snob. He had been blasting like nothing just a while earlier. And now he is not ready to eat his humble pie.
It’s waste of time to talk to snobs, the subeditor felt.
“Look here. Know your English before putting blame on us.”
The subeditor slammed the phone down.
But he had to answer the phone too.
“Hello, is that ....”
The voice asked the name of the subeditor.
“Yes it is.”
“I need to talk to you about 'Mind Benders'.”
“I am sorry, right now I am busy with the pages. Can we talk in one hour’s time?”
“This is more important.”
Nothing is important more than passing the pages. So that can wait. But the subeditor did not voice his opinion.
“But right now I am busy. You can call me in one hour’s time.”
“But then you won’t answer me.”
This was getting too far, the sub thought. He had hardly any time to argue with the gentleman on the other side.
“I am sorry, but right now I am busy.”
He slammed the phone down and got back into work at the hand. As thirty minutes passed by, the subeditor finished his pages.
In another thirty minutes, the phone rang once again.
It was that gentleman once again. They spoke as if nothing happened earlier. He wanted the subeditor to refer to Mind Benders page of October 1 and 8.
“Will you take both pages?”
“Hang on…”
The subeditor took time to find both pages. And the conversation resumed. On his instructions, the subeditor looked at the clues on October 1. The clue was ‘Capital of Bangladesh’ - 31 across. And then he looked at the answer on the October 8 solution. The city’s name was spelled as Dacca.
“Is that how you spell it?”
The subeditor could not recall how the name is spelled at once. All he remembered was that aitch (H) and kay (K) had to be somewhere in the word. Quite unsure, he was stammering the spellings. The gentleman righted the spellings.
“Its D H A K A. The spellings given in the solution are wrong. See, when I contacted you earlier, you said you were going through pages. So there must be an editor to look into this. You belong to a reputed newspaper, and this is how you tarnish its image. Now don’t try to put blame on anyone.”
He went on and on. The subeditor could not think of anything to come up with. Apology? But that would only aggravate things. The gentleman on the other side sounded sarcastic at times. You guys know next to nothing, seemed to be his thoughts.
While the gentleman was at it, the subeditor took one step: he went to Internet. And he googled ‘Dacca’ with a faint hope of something positive. Bingo! Here it is right in front of your eyes.
The first link was redirected to Wikipedia. It was followed by many other links. All these links meant to say Dacca is the name of the Bangladesh’s capital. It is now respelled as ‘Dhaka’. So Dacca is the former name given to the city until it was changed in ....
The sub was getting it. It’s a city name, so cannot have one gospel spellings. City names change over time. A crossword is meant to hone up your knowledge of such names in the past as well as present. Dacca is the archaic spellings of Dhaka - which means both are correct.
If Mecca is also transliterated as Makkah, why can’t Dhaka be Dacca? Quran is also spelled as Koran. So what is this big deal about Dacca?
“No, I don’t see it.”
“It’s there, sir. When you google the word the links come.”
“But it’s wrong spellings.”
The subeditor felt all his patience crumbling down. This gentleman cannot be a gentleman. He is nothing but a snob. He had been blasting like nothing just a while earlier. And now he is not ready to eat his humble pie.
It’s waste of time to talk to snobs, the subeditor felt.
“Look here. Know your English before putting blame on us.”
The subeditor slammed the phone down.
