I like crossword puzzles a lot. I love to fill the vacant spaces. This is my routine. I spend fifteen minutes every morning to fill the crossword puzzle. I have been doing this from last twenty years now.

Crossword puzzles are a difficult set of game and require quick thinking. To be very honest, I have never been able to fill the entire box. With years, I have improved quite a lot but I always fall short. Earlier I used to spend hours thinking about it but now I have limited myself to fifteen minutes. I can’t spend whole day on it. So time is also important. The first thing I do when I open the newspaper is to attempt the crossword puzzle.

It all started when I was in college. I used to study for long hours and would take breaks in between to feel good. During those breaks, I would inadvertently open the newspaper to know what’s happening. It was then that I became hooked to crossword puzzle. I fascinated me so much. It became like an obsession.

I have learnt of lot of new things and words in this process. I feel it is a great way of mental stimulation. It is like mind exercise. I love it very much. My wife has absolutely no interest in crossword puzzle. She finds them very boring.

I read that the term ‘crossword’ first appeared in dictionary in 1930. This is amazing. I also read that the creating of crosswords is called cruciverbalism among its practitioners, who are referred to as cruciverbalists, from the Latin for cross and word. Although the terms have existed since the mid 1970s, non-cruciverbalists rarely use them, calling crossword creators constructors or  setters or compilers. Wow!!! This is most interesting.
I wonder if I can be a cruciverbalist ever. It would be so interesting to make one’s own crossword puzzle and other people raking their minds to solve it. It is an absolute high. All these things are so interesting. It is a completely different world. I had to practice speaking the word ‘cruciverbalist’ many times before I could speak it with conviction. I guess the likes of me can’t be that ever. I am too common. I should entertain myself by filling the crossword puzzle and living with the satisfaction that atleast half the boxes got filled.
I must leave now. Please take care. Bye.

The ‘common man’ opened the newspaper next day and began doing the crossword puzzle. He went on filling the entries and his heart skipped a beat when he realized that only one word was left. The common man read the clue and knew instantly that he had succeeded in solving the entire crossword puzzle, in one go for the first time. He wrote ‘cruciverbalist’ in the last entry with a smile on his face.