Crossword for Wednesday 16 September 2026

Across

1. 1. (Hindi) Honorific adopted by several gurus, scrupulous or not
2. 5. One half of the largest sports broadcaster in Asia in the 90s
3. 9. Lead-in to a fairy tale, after "Once"
4. 10. The battery in your TV or AC remote, probably
5. 11. It can be of the moment, or of a cowboy boot
6. 12. Movie starring a "spiritual leader" with a "rock star social life style", per IMDb
7. 13. A rabbit's larger doppelgänger
8. 14. Czech footwear brand often mistaken for Indian
9. 15. Rama to Ravana, Durga to Mahishasura
10. 17. The deer you see in most Indian reserves
11. 20. Egg source
12. 21. The kakka in a Kerala curry; what a suspect does with "up"
13. 25. The second of the last-resort trio on a Windows PC
14. 26. (Hindi) Source of the golden-yellow hue in shrikhand or rasmalai
15. 27. abbr. Sentiment-driven event with expectations of a windfall
16. 28. A carrot's counterpart in incentive parlance

Down

1. 1. Manmohan Singh's 2006 stateside counterpart
2. 2. Synonym of 1A, in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada
3. 3. Half of a literally named coffee brewing method
4. 4. Anger or frustration, usually towards the government
5. 6. (Hindi) Narrator of Doordarshan's Mahabharata, or the 'latent' roaster
6. 7. Word following ginger-garlic or tooth
7. 8. (Hindi) Ending for some cities, or for a colony inside one
8. 14. A dance form; or with a letter removed, a word shouted in another dance form
9. 16. What he _____ in X, he makes up for in Y, idiomatically
10. 17. (Hindi) Beverage with a redundantly named version
11. 18. The "domestic" one you see in many homes
12. 19. How we read "×" aloud, in Indian maths classes
13. 22. abbr. The Taj Mahal is their most popular project
14. 23. Sholay's Sambha or Apple's Neo, partly
15. 24. abbr. On screen, smiling finger-wagger walking away from a helicopter