Anagram Genius in Mumbai!

For someone who has been fascinated with words and the finer nuances of language, solving crosswords have been a learning process apart from being recreationally satisfying. When in school, I was learning to crack the grid like puzzles which would appear in newspapers from my seniors. That is when I learnt about anagrams.

So when we children were invited to play a game named “Treasure Hunt” in which places in and around the Saraswat Colony, Santacruz, Mumbai (that is where I lived and grew up for 30 years) were to be discovered through clues, one could easily crack one: “Banana Rack” – quickly we headed to the newly opened Canara Bank branch in the vicinity!

For anyone with a passion for crossword puzzles, anagrams would be elementary stuff. Your heart could turn to earth; you may have married your admirer. To most of us, nuclear deals would be unclear deals. You would flaunt your skills so much so that your talent would no longer be latent. You would certainly know that Parliament consists of Partial men, and that Clint Eastwood represents Old West Action and unanimously agree that Mother-in-law is really Woman Hitler!

Back then, without the aid of anagram generators, one would find the hooked ones jot down a set of letters in random fashion and set a-thinking. No clue? Jumble them up once again – all with a pencil and paper - until you either crack it or discover that the clue was not an anagram trick this time around! Jumbling at a click of a mouse was not possible, as is possible now! Those of you who have played a game of “Twirl” on Facebook, in which you form words from a set given alphabets, you will know what I mean.

One of the early anagrams I was fascinated with was the title of a lesson in our text-book “Flit on Cheering Angel”, a lovely lesson about Florence Nightingale!

About Anu Garg
Anurag Garg, better known as Anu Garg, began sending emails providing useful information about words and their origins, which became so popular that he founded Wordsmith.org in 1994. It was a time when there was no ready blogging platform nor any email subscription features for your readers. So Anu combined his knowledge of computer programming and servers with his passion for words and the language to dish out delicacies of the literary kind for hungry minds, day after day. He used the server to serve several passionate enthusiasts by developing the anagram generator and other such features which can be explored on his website Wordsmith.org.

The world just needed a couple of servers of the right kind to get together to serve mankind! Pun intended! What can one say... when one fails to find the right word to describe his contribution?

Read more about him in these interviews and articles featured in NY Times and in the Seattle Times.

If you are someone who loves words, word origins and word play, you will love Anu Garg’s website Wordsmith.org! It is a treasure of well-researched and presented facts, trivia and fun about words in the English language – their origin, usage, quotes and more!

You could even subscribe to their A.Word.A.Day email, which will enrich you with the immense knowledge that Anu Garg has been sharing with linguaphiles, every day for the past 14 years!

His phenomenal work in the field of anagrams inspired this contribution by a fan of his website, Eric Shackle goes thus:
Name is Anu Garg = Anagram Genius

Here is a list of popular anagrams listed for your reading pleasure!

Some popular anagrams from prominent personalities can be found in another website, Fun-with-Words.com.
You couldn’t have missed the Nice Silky woman = Monica Lewinsky, did you?

Anu Garg, a resident of Seattle USA is currently in Mumbai!

Being a subscriber of his website for A.Word.A.Day, I was thrilled to read that Anu Garg is in Mumbai! I immediately wrote to him expressing my desire to meet him in person. It gives me great pleasure to tell you that we did meet, today,i.e. 20th December 2008, for a couple of hours, for which I am always so grateful to him for giving me this opportunity!

Writers, bloggers, word-play enthusiasts, language lovers and just about anybody who is interested would be pleased to know that Anu Garg will be delivering a lecture on Indian languages and the English language at the Crossword Book Store at Kemps Corner, Mumbai on the 2nd January 2009 - 7.00 pm onwards! How about coming over and listening to this genius provide us great insights into his in-depth research so that we can learn more and understand our languages better? Do come over! You may also pass on the invitation to anyone who would be interested in the subject. I would request fellow-bloggers to provide a link to this blogpost so that one would know what to expect in the event. Thank you, fellow bloggers!

A couple of pictures taken in Mumbai below:
1. A picture of Anu Garg


2. A picture of us both


I must thank Anu Garg for his time and the experiences he shared with me during our meet today! Several anagrams quoted as examples from Wordsmith.org!