Cracking Clues and Codes
To the inexperienced solver, cryptic crosswords can seem like complete nonsense. ...and my bad, my grandpa left me with a lot of those to solve. I found a hidden strip of paper beneath his bed, and that's how the things all started to make sense.
I recall looking at a cryptic for the first time, being completely lost by how the clues in front of me could possibly give the solution. What I have since come to understand is that ALL cryptic crossword clues follow a prescribed set of rules that once understood, can be used to easily decipher even the toughest of clues.
I started picking up all of the scraps with the number-letter clue and I stared at it. I tapped my chin thinking of what to do. And then it hit me. Oh GrandPa, you are too smart to hide it all in the library. It took me forever to decode out every single clue, but I knew I had to try my best. My eyes were getting tired from looking at too many variations but I told myself to not give up. After I solved the first clue, I pulled it out and it was a piece of paper. It was covered with some of the leaves stuck on it so I dusted it off. I started unfolding the piece of paper.
Lolz, it seemed like a piece of map. Voila, "it's the bite of cake", a piece from the road map to El Dorado. Slowly I started solving them one by one, picking up hidden pieces of El Dorado Road Map, on the way.
Too late at night, may be I should go back to my home with this shitty pieces of map and try to re-arrange them someway, to get it going good.
How it all Started
Our city was graced by the presence of those foreign military, and for obvious reasons had its impact even on the lives of normal people, a midst the intolerable heat waves which has left the city parched for a few weeks. The roads which were clean, quickly got a devastated look. Even the thin weak beggar, who had embraced one of the shady corners around the big tree, as his humble abode for almost close to four/five years, vanished overnight. The city had been brought to an unplanned halt, and so did the lives of many people like me.
With nothing to look forward, and no wealth to carry me onward, some old wine from my store of good old days, made me remember something good. Or may be something very good.
They said, that my grandpa had a bitter luck, he discovered ways to a great fortune, but never lived enough to make it through. I faintly remembered, he used to sing me lullaby about some map and some hidden clues for me to find it. May be its right time for me to get set go on this. Let's see...